Abstract: In the era of digital economy, the statistical accounting of data elements is a fundamental task for the strategy for digital economy and development plan for data elements. However, theoretical research and statistical practice haven’t yet reached a consensus on the statistical accounting of data elements. Based on the research on the concept and development of data elements, this paper based on the logic of “input-transformation-output”constructs an evaluation index system from the three dimensions of data infrastructure facilities, data transformation capability and data industry application to analyze the development level of the data elements from 2013 to 2020 in 30 provinces and three major regions of China. The results reveal that: first, the overall development level of China’s data elements has been improving year by year, but there are significant differences among the three regions, with an obvious “high in the east and low in the west” stepwise decline feature. The development level of data elements in China shows a step-down trend from the east to the west, but the growth of the development level of data elements shows an "inverted V-shaped" trend: the central region changes the fastest, followed by the west, and the eastern region changes the slowest. There are obvious differences in the development level of data elements in the eastern and central regions, but with the acceleration of the development of data elements in the central and western regions, regional differences appear a "leveling effect", which effectively alleviates the trend of expanding the difference in the development level of data elements in the eastern and central regions, and breaks the "Matthew effect" of "the strong remain strong, the weak remain weak". Second, it shows an overall spatial pattern of “east-central-west” in decreasing order. The differences within regions are the main source of the overall differences, with the contribution rate of the eastern region being the highest. In addition, the Gaussian kernel density curve shows clear regional differences in the development of each dimension of data elements development. Third, the overall difference of the development level of data elements in China has showed a fluctuating downward trend during 2013-2020, the regional difference has changed from inter-regional difference to intra-regional difference, and the intra-regional difference in eastern, central and western regions decreased from high to low. At last, the spatial distribution of the whole development of data elements and the level of data Industry application shows a non-equilibrium and progressive evolutionary trend, with significant spatial agglomeration features. From perspective of the dimensions of data elements development, the level values of data infrastructure facilities, data transformation ability, and data industry application show an overall growth trend, the growth rate of data industry application is the most significant among the three dimensions. All in all, the development of data elements in China has made certain progress, but the problem of uneven, inadequate and uncoordinated regional development is prominent. In the future, targeted policies should be formulated according to local conditions to promote coordinated regional development and accelerate the development of data elements in order to fully release the dividend of data elements and achieve high-quality development. While firmly promoting the construction of digital infrastructure, the government should focus on the integration and development of the digital economy and the real economy, optimize resources allocation in order to realize the coupling of digital industrialization and industrial digitalization. The research results enrich and improve the literature on the evaluation index system for the development of China’s data elements, providing practical reference for further promoting the construction of digital economy.