To explore the driving effects of changes in urban water use and tap the potential of water saving, based on the changes in industrial water consumption and socio-economic indicators in Xianyang City from 2007 to 2018, the factor decomposition model was used to decompose it into scale effect, technical effect and structural effect, and then the evaluation of water saving was conducted. The results show that the total water consumption of Xianyang presents a trend of increasing first and then decreasing fluctuation, which was mainly due to the pulling effect of scale growth and the inhibitory effect of technological progress offset each other, and the structural adjustment is mostly inhibiting effect. Especially after the Xixian New District was transferred, the structural effect became the main factor in reducing water consumption in 2018. At present, the water consumption of Xianyang City has been continuously reduced while maintaining a GDP growth rate of 3.7%, but its water-saving technology has been difficult to upgrade. The water saving indicators of agricultural water consumption, industrial water consumption, domestic water consumption and comprehensive water consumption in 10 major cities of Shaanxi Province were compared. It was found that the agricultural water consumption in Xianyang City has the most water-saving potential and the comprehensive water-saving e level is in the middle of Shaanxi Province.