In order to evaluate the comprehensive economic and social development level, the comprehensive water resources utilization level in the Yangtze River Basin and their internal relationship, the entropy method, panel cointegration theory and error correction model are used to analyze the panel Granger causality between economic & social development and water resource utilization in the basin from 2000 to 2017. The results show that there is a long-term cointegration relationship between economic & social development and water resource utilization in the upper, middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River Basin.In the long-term, the relationship between economic & social development and water resource utilization was bidirectional in the upstream region, while the link from economic & social development to water resource utilization in the midstream region, and the link from water resource utilization to economic & social development in the downstream region were unidirectional. The economic & social development and water resources utilization in the upstream region have a higher degree of correlation. In the short-term, only the downstream region has a unidirectional relationship from economic & social development to water resources utilization. Based on the different causal relationships between the two, provinces and cities should formulate water resources policies according to local conditions when formulating economic development plans, in order to achieve the coordinated development of economic society and water resources.