On the basis of applying quantitative and qualitative approaches as well as GIS technology, this paper established an index system to make a comprehensive evaluation on socio-economic development of minority areas in China. The result showed that socio-economic development in minority area presents a series of characteristics that the north is high and the south is low, center-margin pattern is obvious and the areas with middle and lower development indices are distributed centrally and continuously. However, the causes of the socio-economic characteristics mainly include natural conditions, economic development basic, population cultural quality, re-gional combination and development conditions of mineral and energy resources, informal institutional factors and distribution of major traffic lines.. On the basis of applying quantitative and qualitative approaches as well as GIS technology, this paper established an index system to make a comprehensive evaluation on socio-economic development of minority areas in China. The result showed that socio-economic development in minority area presents a series of characteristics that the north is high and the south is low, center-margin pattern is obvious and the areas with middle and lower and development indices are distributed centrally and continuously. However, the causes of the socio-economic characteristics mainly include natural conditions, economic development basic, population cultural quality, re-gional combination and development conditions of mineral and energy resources, informal institutional factors and distribution of major traffic lines.