Most urban planning policies are affected by the industrial structure. This paper gave a positive and comparative analysis on the industrial structure transformation ability and transformation direction of the thirty-one provincial level divisions in China by using principal component analysis, based on theories of regional economic development and industrial economics. The results show that Beijing, Shanghai, Guangdong, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shandong have strong industrial structure transformation ability and the industrial transformation direction is in the tertiary industry except for Guangdong, Jiangsu and Shandong. The industrial structure transformation ability over the thirty-one regions exhibits a decreasing trend from the eastern coastal area to the west inland. The sequence of industry structure transformation direction is from the first industry to the second and then to the tertiary for China.
