[Objective] To increase the water resource use efficiency in a sustainable way and Provide theoretical basis for specific management in Jiangsu Province, we studied the temporal changes in relative efficiency of water resource use in Jiangsu Province from 2005 to 2014. [Methods] We collected data on water resources from 2005 to 2014 in Jiangsu Province, and calculated the technical redundancy rate, scale redundancy rate and relative efficiency of water resource use by traditional data envelopment analysis(DEA) model and its modified version; and detected significant influencing factors of the relative efficiency of water resources use using canonical correlation analysic(CCA) model. [Results] The relationship between scale redundancy rate and per capita GDP accorded with enriroment Kuznets curre(EKC), and technical redundancy rate was negatively correlated with per capita gross domestic product. The factors influencing technical redundancy rate and scale redundancy rate were not exactly the same.[Conclusion] The relative efficiency of water resource use increased steadily with the time, the main factors affecting the technical redundancy rate were water consumption per unit output value of ten thousand Yuan and proportion of the tertiary industry; but the main factors influencing scale redundancy rate were exploitation and utilization ratio of water resources and water consumption per unit output value of ten thousand Yuan.