The contradiction between supply and demand of water resources in the Yellow River Basin is prominent, in order to coordinate the relationship between water resources and economic and social development in this area, according to water use data in the Yellow River Basin Water Resources Bulletin from 1988 to 2019, the information entropy method was used to analyze the evolution law and spatial distribution of water use structure in the Yellow River Basin in the past 30 years. The results show that the total water consumption in the Yellow River Basin has shown a two-stage-change from 1988-2019, which generally showed a trend of decreasing first and then increasing. The information entropy of water use structure showed a continuous growth trend, which increased from 0.6 in 1988 to 1.2 in 2019, indicating that the evolution of water use structure of the Yellow River Basin was beneficial to the development of economy and society. From the perspective of the spatial distribution of water use structure, the information entropy and equilibrium of water use structure in Sichuan, Shaanxi and Shanxi Province were relatively high, their mean values were above 1.2 and 0.6 respectively; whereas the rationality of water use structure in Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and Shandong Province was at a poor level in the Yellow River Basin, the mean values of information entropy and equilibrium of water use structures were below 0.9 and 0.5 respectively. In terms of the temporal evolution of water use structure, the information entropy and equilibrium degree of water use structure in Sichuan Province showed a decreasing trend, but the other eight provinces (autonomous regions) showed an increasing trend. The largest increase was seen in Qinghai Province, which increased by more than 40%, because the proportion of water used for irrigation had decreased, and water used by other industries had increased. The research results can reflect the rationality of the water use structure of the nine provinces (autonomous regions), and it can provide some reference for the formulation of water resources planning and water-saving policies in the Yellow River Basin.