Abstract: In order to study a basic characteristics and developing tendency of China's rural household energy consumption, this paper gives the level and structure of rural household energy consumption in China in terms of the national statistics data of rural household energy consumption. The total rural household energy consumption of China in 1996 is 341 million tce, 9.8% of which is from commercial energy. The correlation coefficients are given with per capita energy consumption of coal equivalent (PCEC), effective heat consumption for cooking and heating per capita per day (EHC), ratio of commercial energy (RCE) in EHC and annual electricity consumption for livelihood per capita (AEC) and so on. Therefore, EHC, RCE and AEC may be major characteristics on rural household energy consumption. The creativities of these characteristics with per capita cash income and air temperature are discussed and the regression equation of per capita electricity consumption (Y) and per capita income (X) is Y=22.964+0.03956X.