With remote sensing and GIS technology, the spatial-temporal characteristics of rural settlements of Shandong Province during the period of 1980s-2005 were analyzed from the aspects of structure, morphology, spatial scattering and change intensity. Five indices were chosen,  which indicated the change value of the area proportion, bi-directional change value, relative change rate, the change of aggregation value and the stability change of rural settlements of every city in Shandong Province respectively. Based on these indices, 17 cities in Shandong Province were classified into 3 classes quantitatively and objectively by using the hierarchical cluster method. The first class includes Dezhou City and Binzhou City, which have the maximum stability change value, the highest relative change rate, the fast dynamic change speed, the biggest aggregation change value and the smallest structure change value. The second class includes Zaozhuang City, Tai’an City and Heze City, which have the minimum stability change value, the lowest relative change rate, the slowest dynamic change speed and the biggest structure change value, and the middle-level morphological and aggregation change value. The other 12 cities belong to the third class, characterized by the middle-level rural resident land structure change value, stability change, relative change rate and dynamic change speed, and the minimum aggregation change value.