Abstract: Scientific understanding of the spatial evolution characteristics and driving mechanisms of rural settlements is the basic premise of the orderly reconstruction of rural settlements, and is also one of the important contents of current rural geography research. In this study, with Yancheng, a coastal city in Jiangsu Province, as an example, various methods such as kernel density estimation, spatial "hot spot" analysis and landscape pattern index are employed to explore the spatial evolution characteristics and driving mechanisms of rural settlements in the coastal plains of Jiangsu Province, based on land use data from three periods spanning from 1980 to 2020. Results indicate: (1) From the perspective of spatial distribution, rural settlements in Yancheng City exhibit obvious aggregation characteristics, with density distribution being high in the northwest and low in the southeast, and the directional distribution along roads, county town and big towns gradually strengthening; (2) In terms of scale structure, from 2000 to 2020, rural settlements in Yancheng have witnessed an increase in size, a decrease in quantity, and continuous improvement in land intensification, showing the characteristics of large-scale, low-density distribution, and small-scale, high-density distribution; (3) Regarding landscape morphology, settlement patches tend to be regular, primarily manifested as dot, strip, and block expansion patterns; (4) The spatial changes in settlements result from the comprehensive effects of natural environment, economic development, locational transportation, and policy regulation, with economic development serving as the main driving forces for the evolution of rural settlements, and the driving effect of regional development policies becoming increasingly significant.