[Objective] Investigation and calculation of the regional self-development capacity(RSC) were the keys of alleviating poverty and promoting development persistently in Qinba Mountain areas.[Methods] Based on the ecological economic perspective, taking Qinba Mountain areas as a typical example, a complicated system of RSC with four dimensions, including industry capacity(IC), market capacity(MC), space capacity(SC) and soft power(SP) was built up. Then, the RSCs of all the counties in 2006, 2010 and 2014 were estimated and their spatio-temporal evolution were estimated by multi-index comprehensive calculation method.[Results] The RSC of Qinba areas is generally low and unbalanced. As a whole, the RSC of Qinba areas belongs to MC constraint-SC drive. From 2006 to 2014, the RSC in Qinba Mountain areas had the trend of aggrandizement, and "rising in central but declining in southeast" in spacial evolution. There are differences among the four dimensions of RSC in spatio-temporal evolution. The internal structure of RSC was unreasonable in Qinba Mountain areas.[Conclusion] The entire Qinba Mountain areas is weak in self-development ability. The regional restriction and the driving factors are also different. In the future, targeted measures for development can be made when considering the aspects of regional industrial structure, market position, ecological function and science innovation.