Abstract: As the capital city of Xinjiang, Urumqi City is an important economic center in western China and plays an important role in the urban system of China.It could be of significance for the urban spatial planning of Urumqi City by studying the population living pattern of the city.This paper takes Urumqi as the research area, uses the expansion of urban space to verify the macrocharacteristics of the change of residential pattern, takes “residential pattern” as the breakthrough point, and uses Moran’s I and ArcGIS technology to analyze the residential pattern of different population attributes in this area.It is concluded that the urban residential land in Urumqi extends mainly in the northwest direction,the West Mountain direction, the East Mountain direction and the outer edge of the old urban area of the city.The agglomeration of middleaged and old population in different age groups is more obvious, the agglomeration of working population is not significant,and the population of primary and secondary schools and junior middle schools with different educational levels and the population of large cities are different.The Moran’s I value of the population of primary and secondary school and junior high school population is higher than that of the population with different education level,the Moran’s I value of the illiterate population is relatively low,and the high school population is negatively correlated in space.The spatial differentiation index of schoolage population and the elderly population has increased in all regions from 2000 to 2016,and the labor population differentiation index has declined in Shayibak District and Shuimogou District,indicating that the phenomenon of aging is becoming more and more obvious.In 2000,the illiterate population was in a relatively different state in Toutunhe District.The level of differentiation was relatively high in the Xinshi District from 2000 to 2010.The population of primary and junior middle schools, senior middle schools and above junior colleges gradually decreased from 1990 to 2010,the degree of mixed living deepened,and the phenomenon of residential differentiation decreased.

Key words: Residential pattern, Spatial differentiation, Moran index, Urumqi City