Under the background of urban-rural integration, rural settlements increasingly exhibit a compound of residential and production functions. Studying its spatiotemporal characteristics and influencing factors are crucial for implementing the rural revitalization strategy. This paper first explores the logic and connotation of living-production integration in rural settlements. Taking counties in Jiangsu Province as study units, this paper also measures the living and production functions of rural settlements using POI data, assesses their integration level through the coupling coordination degree model, and reveals their evolutionary characteristics, and analyzes the influencing factors by the Spearman rank correlation coefficient and geographical detector. Results indicate that: 1) from 2015 to 2023, the functional levels of living and production in Jiangsu’s rural settlements were continuously improved in both intensity and diversity dimensions, with production dominating in intensity but living in diversity, and both presenting a pronounced south-high-north-low spatial gradient; 2) during the study period, the functional integration degree of rural settlements in Jiangsu has been increased from 0.21 to 0.36, with high-value clusters concentrated in Suzhou-Wuxi-Changzhou and surrounding counties, while low-value areas were primarily distributed around Hongze/Gaoyou Lake, and the Huang-Huai Plain; and 3) the contradiction between diverse human demands and limited settlement space was the core driver of functional integration. Accordingly, to promote functional composite and facilitate rural revitalization, this paper proposes some tailored strategies for rural coordinated development and including establishing urban-rural collaborative mechanisms and enhancing villagers’ agency.