Urbanization course is not only a process of population transformation from rural areas to urban areas, but also the one of economic development and the increase in urban and rural residents' income.And its effect on residential energy demand is correspondingly divided into structure and income effects.This paper accordingly constructs a residential energy demand model of the interaction between urbanization rate and GDP per capita, and makes a systematically empirical test by using provincial panel data from 2003 to 2013.It arrives at the following results:firstly, at the initial stage of economic development, population transformation from rural areas to urban areas has the positive effect on residential energy use, but weakens as economic development level rises; structural effect is negative when the economy develops to a certain stage; secondly, the positive effect of GDP per capita on residential energy demand gradually weakens in the process of urbanization, but income effect is always positive; therefore, as a whole, urbanization leads to the increase in residential energy demand, which is mainly due to the rise in income level; only from a perspective of changes in population structure, population transformation from rural areas to urban areas is beneficial to energy conservation at current development stage in China; thirdly, in the process of urbanization, the effects of the increase in income level and changes in population structure on residential energy demand vary with regions.It provides evidence for the advancement of state strategy of new-type urbanization construction and urbanization-based energy conservation.