In order to further enhance the water use efficiency (WUE), four WUE indicators as well as the data envelopment analysis (DEA) model and Malmquist index were combined to evaluate the WUE of 16 cities in Shandong Province during 2011-2020. The results showed that the WUE in Shandong Province was overall higher than that of China, but its development was unbalanced in different cities of the province. The agricultural, industrial and comprehensive water use levels in Jiaodong Peninsula were the highest among Shandong Province (especially Tsingtao City), followed by central Shandong Province, then southern Shandong Province, and northwestern Shandong Province ranked lowest (especially Binzhou and Liaocheng cities). The DEA was effective for 8 cities (Jinan, Tsingtao, Zibo, Yantai, Jining, Weihai, Rizhao and Heze) in terms of scale and technology; whereas the other 8 cities could not achieve the DEA effectiveness, among which Liaocheng City had the lowest WUE over the whole province. Furthermore, the total factor productivity (TFP) change index of Shandong Province has increased by 8.2% on average from 2011 to 2020, suggesting that the WUE in Shandong Province showed an upward trend mainly due to the increase in the technological progress. Particularly, the TFP index has increased by more than 10% in Tsingtao, Yantai and Weihai cities. However, it has overall declined since 2014 over the whole province, which even dropped to less than one during 2019-2020. Therefore, the WUE of Shandong Province needs to be improved urgently in the near future. In order to ensure the sustainable utilization of water resources and the high-quality development of economic society, it is suggested that the investment in science and technology should be strengthened and the technological innovation should be promoted in Shandong Province. In addition, it is necessary to reasonably control the production scale in northwestern and southern Shandong Province and to promote the use of unconventional water resources.