The analysis of spatio-temporal characteristics of water resources development and utilization in the river basin can lay the foundation for the rational and effective development and utilization of future water resources, and provide a technical support for the planning, development and utilization of water resources in the basin. Based on the water use and socio-economic data of Poyang Lake Basin from 2010 to 2019, we studied the temporal and spatial characteristics of water resources development and utilization in recent 10 years from the three aspects of quantity, efficiency and structure of water resources development and utilization using the factors of coefficient of variation, Lorentz curve and Gini coefficient, spatial classification, information entropy and equilibrium. Among all the industries in the Poyang Lake Basin, the spatial distribution of water use in the secondary industry was the most unbalanced, its coefficient of variation ranged from 0.8 to 0.9, and the spatial matching between water use distribution and water resources endowment was the worst, its Gini coefficient ranged from 0.30 to 0.35. From 2010 to 2019, the equilibrium degree of water use structure of cities in the basin ranged from 0.4 to 0.75, among which, the equilibrium degree of Fuzhou City was the smallest, about 0.4, and that of Nanchang city was the largest, about 0.75. However, the spatial distribution of water use of the secondary industry in the basin presented an upward trend during these years, because water resources gradually drew more and more attention in the development layout of this industry. The water use efficiency of each industry had obvious spatial differences, but the variations were inconsistent, among which, the water use efficiency of the secondary industry had been increasing year by year. The main factor affecting the balance of water use structure in the Poyang Lake Basin was the large proportion of agricultural water consumption.