As the predominant region for urban growth, spatial variance of urban growth in the metropolitan areas has drawn much academic attention in recent years. In order to reveal the typical driving mechanism of urban growth and the rule of metropolitan evolution in China, this paper initiates an analysis on the variance of urban land growth among different regions related to metropolitan and non-metropolitan areas, and tried to proclaim the differentiated factors that influenced the growth of region categories during the period of 2001-2006. Empirical study shows that, although the speed of urban growth in the whole region tended to slow down, the amount of land expansion in urban areas was still remarkable, with obvious differences among sub-regions over the classification of metropolitan concept. According to the results of regression analysis on different urban categories, the development of non-agricultural industry played a key role in urban growth in metropolitan areas, while non-metropolitan region was more influenced by urban population. Under the influences of regional labor division, the performance of driving factors was different between central city and outlying county areas. Along with the proceeding of the industry renewal in central cities, the third industry has become the predominant force to promote further growth of urban land. At the meantime, as an intermediate form between non-metropolitan and metropolitan areas, the outlying counties showed similarity both with central cities and non-metropolitan counties, with the spatial expansion being mainly influenced by urban population and second industry growth.