Abstract: It is an important indicator to measure the high-quality development and transformation upgrades for coal-resource exhausted cities to identify their population, land and industry are coordinated or not.To scientifically reveal the coordination relationship among urban population, land and industrial development level for coal-resource exhausted cities, this paper chosen 13 cities which covers north-eastern, eastern, middle and western areas of China to do the analysis.The index system of “population-land-industry” is first developed to comprehensively evaluates the development level of “population-land-industry”, and the coupling coordination degree function is further adopted to calculates the coupling coordination degree of “population-land-industry” in coal resource-exhausted cities.Finally, the temporal and spatial distribution rules are revealed.The conclusions are the comprehensive development level of “population-land-industry” in coal-depleted cities generally declines, the population system generally shows a relatively high-level development, while land system shows a low-level development; the comprehensive development level of “population-land-industry” in the eastern region is relatively high, while the figure in the northeast region is relatively low; overall, the coal-exhausted cities have a low level of “population-land-industry” coupling coordination and are generally in a reluctant or primary coupling stage, with poor resonance of population, land and industry; the level of “population-land-industry” coupling coordination shows significant differences in time and space.To be specific, cities in the eastern region have a high degree coupling coordination, while the cities in the northeast and western regions are on the verge of imbalance.Finally, this paper puts forward policy suggestions from the perspective of nurturing new industries, extending the industrial chain, optimizing talent policies and urban space, to realize the coordinated development of “population-land-industry” in coal-resource exhausted cities.