Abstract: The paper chooses 365 cities to study the current situation of water demand,water supply and water shortage.The result are summarised in six sub areas.The study shows water demand of the all study cities is 66 34 billion cubic meters,the water supply is 59.99 billion cubic meters,and the water shortage is 6.35 billion cubic meters.If ground water is not being over used,the water shortage is still about 9.57 billion cubic meters.If we extend those datum further to all Chinese cities,the shortage of water supply is 10.5 billion cubic meters.According to the water shortage standard established in the paper,275 cities are lake water,of which 93 severe water shortage ones.The paper analyzes the character,distribution and influence of water shortage.