Attempting to study the classification and spatial evolution of rural ecological space in traditional agricultural areas, in order to lay a foundation for the utilization of natural resources and the reconstruction of spatial pattern in traditional agricultural areas. Taking hilly areas of central Sichuan Province as an example, based on the rural ecological space classification system, the spatiotemporal evolution of ecological space in traditional agricultural areas in terms of quantity, composition and spatial distribution were analyzed by using the change rate, dynamic attitude, transfer matrix and lorenz curve. The results showed that the rural ecological space accounted for about 98% of the total land area in the hilly area of central Sichuan Province, and the per capita ecological space area reached 164068m2. The rural ecological space was reduced from 8829872km2 to 8732222km2 between 2000 and 2018, with an average annual decrease of 5425km2. The comprehensive dynamic attitude of ecological space was 0.41%, and the transfer rate of ecological space from 2000 to 2018 was 0.20%, the farmland and forest ecosystems was the main structure of ecological space in the study area, the retention rate were more than 90% in the past 20 years, it was shown that with the passage of time, although the amount of ecological space in traditional agricultural areas was decreasing, the structure of ecological space was still stable overall. The Gini coefficient of the two type ecological space was 0.08 and 0.34 respectively, which indicated absolute average and relatively reasonable spatial distribution, it was shown that ecological space presented a balanced and stable spatial distribution pattern in the traditional agricultural areas. The overall habitat quality in the hilly area of central Sichuan Province was not high. In 2000, 2010 and 2018, the mean value of habitat quality was 0.310, 0.311 and 0.309, respectively. The values showed a trend of first decline and then rise, which was positively correlated with the quantity change of rural basic ecological space.