Analysis of the spatial distribution and influencing factors of China national forest villages

China national forest villages are the agents to promote rural greening and beautification, as well as further implementation of the rural revitalization strategy. It is of great significance to study their spatial distribution characteristics and influencing factors. Therefore, taking 7586 China national forest villages as examples, the methods of nearest neighbor index, Tyson polygon, cold and hot spot analysis, and nuclear density index are used to study the spatial distribution characteristics of China national forest villages and their influencing factors. The results show that (1) since the nearest neighbor index is less than 1, and the Tyson polygon area variation coefficient is much greater than 64%, it is comprehensively determined that the distribution of China national forest villages belongs to agglomerated distribution. (2) The spatial clustering is characterized by “hot in the south and cold in the north.” The hot spots are dominated by southern regions such as Sichuan, Hubei, and Jiangsu, and the cold spots are dominated by northern regions such as Heilongjiang, Jilin and Xinjiang. (3) The distribution characteristics of nuclear density have a strong correlation with the distribution characteristics of forest vegetation and urban agglomerations. Most high-density areas are located within the forest vegetation coverage. The first batch forms the Yangtze River Delta and Central Plains urban agglomerations high-density areas, and the second batch forms the Yangtze River Delta and Central Plains high-density areas. (4) Elevation, aspect, river, forest resources endowment, traffic, economic development level, and population size are important factors affecting the distribution of China national forest villages, and their distribution presents the characteristics of “low altitude, positive direction, near water, rich forest resources, convenient transportation, developed economy, and dense population.” The research can provide reference for the evaluation and construction of China national forest villages and the implementation of village beautification and rural revitalization strategies in the future.