As socialism with Chinese characteristics enters a new era, the principal social contradiction has been transformed into the contradiction between people’s ever-growing need for a better life and unbalanced and inadequate development. The problem of unbalanced and inadequate development has become a major constraint to meeting the people’s growing need for a better life. It has become an extremely important issue of the era to study the problem of unbalanced and inadequate development from a quantitative perspective and to conduct theoretical and empirical research on the balanced development of China. Tsinghua China Balanced Development Index is a quantitative analysis of the problem of unbalanced and inadequate development. From the main contradictions of Chinese society, it evaluates the degree of unbalanced and inadequate development, monitors the process of balanced development, reflects what China has achieved in balanced development, reveals the weaknesses in balanced development, so as to provide a basis for the formulation of macro policies.