Accurate understanding the spatio-temporal variation characteristics and driving factors of citrus production in China is the basis for allocating production resources， formulating the development policies in a scientific way， and promoting the supply-side structural reform of the citrus industry. Based on the provincial panel data of China’s citrus production from 1978 to 2019， this study applies the barycenter theory and GIS technology to analyze the spatio-temporal distribution characteristics of citrus production and depict the barycenter movement trajectory of citrus plantations and production in China. Moreover， we construct the spatial Durbin model to investigate the driving factors of the spatio-temporal variation of citrus production. Some key results show that： 1） the barycenter of citrus production has the trend of moving into the southwest and there is a low spatial matching degree between the changes of citrus production distribution and resource endowment； 2） significant spatial autocorrelation and positive spillover effects exist in China’s citrus production and the indirect effect is greater than the direct effect of most variables； 3） the spatio-temporal variation of citrus production are influenced by the factors of the temperature， disaster-stricken area， comparative benefit， agricultural irrigation and the non-agricultural employment opportunities. In addition， the influence factors are significantly different across different citrus production areas. Based on this， the spatial layout of citrus production should be optimized by optimizing the variety structure， giving full play to the driving role of resource endowment and technological progress and effectively exploiting the positive spillover effects of the influencing factors， so as to optimize the spatial layout of citrus production.