Abstract:  Using correlation and buffer analysis，the relevance of pastoralists’ per capita income and transportation status quo in the source region of the Yangtze-Yellow Rivers was studied in this paper，aiming at revealing that if the developmental level of the transportation has restricted or encouraged the promotion of the pastoralists’ per capita income. According to the accessibility and availability of the original data，the Qinghai Province’s traffic maps of the year 2005 and 2011 was utilized to achieve the  indexes describing the transportation status quo. Trying to contact transportation with income and explore the correlation between them in a middle level is an innovation point of this study. The results showed as follows：（1）The degree of the convenience to the three central cities Xining、Golmud and Delingha had a time-lag significant effect on the pastoralists’ per capita income，which means that the more convenient to the three central cities，the higher income the pastoralist owns. （2） There was an insignificant negative correlation ship between roads density and income in 2005，in 2011 the correlation index turned into 0.471，performing a significant positive relationship. Generally speaking，the bigger the proportion of the higher grades roads in the road net，the more significant the effect of the road construction on the pastoralists’ per capita income. （3） Choosing the density of the national road，the density of the provincial road and the density of the county and township road standing for the construction level of the three grades roads，then analyzing the correlation ship between the construction level of the three grades roads and pastoralists’ per capita income，the result demonstrated that：the county and township roads were most related in 2005，and in 2011 provincial road became the most vital factor relating to pastoralists’ per capita income because of the upgrading and reconstruction of the county and township roads，but up to now the three grades roads are all in a low construction level. （4） The Qinghai-Tibet railway officially opened to traffic in 2006 and then immediately did apparent benefits to the adjacent counties. It revealed that the distance to the railway had an obvious negative effect on the income level of the pastoralists and the correlation trend was rising year by year from 2006 to 2011. Furthermore，the buffer analysis indicated that the pastoralists settling in the counties located in the 300 km buffer zone got the higher income than the pastoralists beyond the 300km buffer zone. （5） By the buffer analysis of the three airports in Qinghai Province，the result demonstrated that the income level of the counties located in the 300 km buffer zone of the Xining airport was much higher than that of other counties，the radiation effect on the proximal counties of the Golmud airport and the Delingha airport were not obvious，but they must play significant role in the future and cannot be ignored. The three big airports’ 300 km buffer zone can obviously cover all the counties in the source region of the Yangtze-Yellow Rivers，which can be anticipated to promote the whole income level in the source region of the Yangtze-Yellow Rivers.

Key words: the source region of the Yangtze-Yellow Rivers, pastoralists&rsquo, per capita income, transportation, correlation, buffer zone