Abstract: Taking 602 Chinese cities at or above the county level as research object, the allocation characteristics of residential land in Chinese cities were explored by using the methods of geospatial statistics, Theil index, and coupling coordination model from the perspective of permanent population from 2006 to 2021. The results show that: (1)The per capita residential land area has significantly increased for the vast majority of cities in China. But, there are differences in the per capita residential land area owned by cities at different administrative levels. If the administrative level of a city is higher, then the per capita residential land area of the city is smaller. (2)There are regional differences in the spatial allocation of per capita residential land with regional differences narrowing year by year among cities. The regional disparities among cities within each province vary. (3)The coupling coordination level between the allocation of per capita residential land and the distribution of permanent population is in an imbalanced for the vast majority of cities, with differences in the coupling coordination level among cities with diffe-rent administrative levels. Based on the research findings, the idea of residential land allocation, "increasing land with increasing population, and reducing land with decreasing population" that links residential land with the permanent population, was proposed.