A Study on the Spatio-Temporal Evolution of Digital Rural Development and Farmers' Affluence Levels and Their Coupling Coordination

As a critical component of the Digital China initiative, the construction of digital villages plays a pivotal role in rural modernization and significantly influences the prosperity of rural residents. This study, grounded in the 2023 Opinions of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council on Promoting Comprehensive Rural Revitalization, establishes an evaluation index system for assessing rural residents' living standards from three dimensions: subsistence, social security, and quality of life. Utilizing the entropy weight method and the TOPSIS approach, this research examines the evolution trends of rural residents' living standards in China and analyzes the coupling and coordination between digital village construction and these standards. The findings indicate that while China's rural residents' prosperity level remains in its early stages, it has demonstrated robust growth momentum. Although the absolute disparity among provinces is widening, the relative gap is narrowing, suggesting initial signs of coordinated regional development. Additionally, digital village construction has shown a steady upward trend with significant spatial agglomeration effects and good coordination with rural residents' prosperity levels. However, the spatial disparity characterized by "high in the east and low in the west, high in the south and low in the north" persists. Therefore, to promote digital village construction effectively, policy orientation should be adjusted, development priorities clarified, and developmental shortcomings addressed to achieve positive interaction between digital village construction and rural residents' living standards, thereby advancing rural modernization.