Understanding how and to what extent humans directly use ecosystem services (ES) to meet water, energy, and food needs is fundamental to advancing nexus-based sustainability research. Yet, identifying how and to what extent the drivers of such direct ES use have evolved amid rapid socioeconomic transformation remains a major challenge. Here, we integrated multi-decadal national census data to conduct one of the first comprehensive and spatially explicit analyses of direct ES use across prefecture-level cities in China. We found that: (1) the average proportion of people or households directly relying on ES in 2020 was 11.64% (biomass for cooking), 23.44% (for working), 9.67% (water for drinking), and 0.94% (materials for housing), with total direct ES use decreasing by 20% from 2000 to 2010 and by nearly 60% from 2010 to 2020; (2) while land resources were positively associated with ES dependence in 2000 and 2010, this relationship weakened by 2020, signaling a decoupling of land availability and ES reliance; (3) economic development consistently exerted a strong negative impact on direct ES use, while demographic structure emerged as an increasingly important driver; and (4) higher levels of direct ES use corresponded to lower sustainability outcomes and weaker environmental attitudes. Our findings revealed that as socioeconomic systems evolve, traditional resource-based management approaches must adapt to shifting patterns of ES dependence to promote sustainable human–nature relationships.

Ecosystem services use, environmental attitudes, land resources, sustainability