Jiangsu province is one of the most-densely populated regions,fastestin economic growth and mostintensive in land use.The contradiction between land shortage and rapid economic development has become an nonnegligible problem that restrains sustainable development of the regions.Wavelet analysis is adopted to study characterization of the change and its driving mechanism in acreage of cultivated land of Jiangsu Province,by using the data from 1978 to 2004. Results show that 1)the flucturation of cultivated area in Jiangsu Province is characterized by 52 year,132 year and 272 year time scales,and subjected to two factors on the 15a time scale and mainly to GDP on the 27a time scale,both negatively; 2)the acreage of cultivated land will keep on losing but with a reducing rate as a result of increasing attention from the State to the issue of shrinking cultivated area and promulgation and im plementation of a series of land regulation policies.