Abstract: The Qinghai Tibet Plateau is an important ecological protection area in China, and the study of the spatial evolution and driving factors of rural settlements in the Qinghai Tibet Plateau is of great significance to the maintenance of ecosystem in China. Applying the GIS spatial analysis method and the landscape pattern index, this paper explored the spatial evolution characteristics and driving factors of rural settlements in the Qinghai Tibet Plateau from 1980 to 2015. Results show that: 1) the rural settlement land in the Qinghai Tibet Plateau shows an expanding trend, and the new rural settlement land mainly comes from the occupation of cultivated land, grassland and unused land; 2) during the study period, the patch shape of rural settlement land gradually tends to be irregular, the patch fragmentation decreases, and the continuity increases; 3) the characteristics of rural settlement agglomeration are obvious, and high-value agglomeration centers have been formed in the east and south of Qinghai Province and the south of Tibet respectively; and 4) the layout of rural settlements is mainly constrained by elevation and slope and affected by socio-economic factors. Transportation and urban development are important factors affecting the layout of rural settlements in the Qinghai Tibet Plateau. Therefore, duing the process of rural development on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, this paper suggests paying more attention to rationally planning rural residential land use, strictly controlling the ecological red line, relying on policy support to continuously optimize rural functions, and improving infrastructure construction to promote high-quality rural development in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.