This paper deals with the gradient of the resource and economy structure at the county level in the hilly and mountainous area of the Ganjiang River basin by means of the Principal Component Analysis (PCA). Firstly, an analysis of the data about the resource and economy structure of 35 counties is made. It shows that the systematical differences among the counties are caused by climatical conditions, terrain composition, and the level of intensive farming. The spacial distribution of these decisive factors is that they take the Jitai basin as a centre and change sucessively and gradually in all directions, Secondly, the whole hilly and mountainous area is divided into 6 districts on the basis of the systematical differences among the counties and their gradient of the resource and economy structure. And lastly, the authors offer an opinion on the resource development of the hilly and mountainous area of the Ganjiang River basin.