Abstract：In the movement of rapid urbanization, the metropolitan region becomes an important form of metropolis functional area concept in China. This paper analyses the spatial differentiation features and problems of urbanization in Jinan metropolitan region utilizing the data of the Fifth Census, and concludes that although Jinan has a large population of city agglomeration, lacking the ability of radiating and driving the other circumjacent cities or towns to develop is still a problem. On one hand, most of counties in the metropolitan region especially those lie to the north of the Yellow River hold a low degree of urbanization. On the other hand, the other central cities around Jinan do not have enough competitive power to develop more smoothly. All these problems limit the competitive strength of Jinan city and the region. The other features could be summarized as follows. First, the whole urbanized level of Jinan metropolitan region was close to that of Shandong province, but there was big disparity in the same region. Second, the urbanization of Jinan and the metropolitan region was mostly driven by the inner agglomeration of central cities, but the development of middle-small towns contributed more to those areas around the Jinan city. Third, the density of population was very high in Jinan metropolitan region, but the density of urban population was much lower comparatively. The spatial distribution of population was relatively balanced in Jinan metropolitan region, and the degree of convergency was not prominent. Fourth, industrialization accelerated the urbanization process of Jinan metropolitan region, but urbanization did not have obvious effect of increase of scale to the industrialization process. There was inconsistency between urban and industrial development in some counties. Last, immigration of population showed the same rule of gross production distribution.
Considering the problems and trends, the author raises the urbanization spatial developing strategy of "Intensify the Core, Multiply the Center, Interregional Linkage, and County Underlay".
