With rapid economic development in China, the competition for spaces of production, living and ecology is getting fierce. The Yellow River Basin, a principal agricultural and manufacturing region, has been affected significantly by urbanization and industrialization, as well as national development policies. Consequently, the ecology has become particularly vulnerable. In this complex region, scientifically measuring the coordinated development state of the recurrent pattern of production, living and ecological spaces (PLES) and exploring the spatial differentiation of the coordination development state are crucial for future planning, management, environmental protection and high-quality development. Therefore, we estimated the coupling coordination degree (CCD) of PLES by employing spatiotemporal data and spatial statistic models, and investigated the influencing factors of CCD. We found that CCD was relatively low and presented a pyramid-shaped distribution in 1995 and 2015. The influencing factors included altitude, slope, temperature, precipitation, economy, and population. Stable factors included altitude, slope and temperature, whereas variable factors included precipitation, economy and population. The promotion effects of climatic and economic factors were evident and intensified with time, whereas the inhibition effect of the precipitation was observed, which also intensified with time. Policy implications for land-use optimization in such an ecologically fragile area were proposed. •Coupling coordination degree model used to study PLES of river basin.•Geographically weighted regression model used in dynamic analysis of river basin.•CCD of PLES presented a pyramid-shaped distribution in the Yellow River Basin.•Impacts of geographical factors on CCD of PLES are spatially varying.