Regional environment has been recognized as a crucial factor in explaining entrepreneurial intention of individuals. Using the Chinese Family Database and the China Household Finance Survey, this paper extends a multilevel mixed-effects logistic regression model to understand the differences between urban and rural entrepreneurial intention driven by factors such as entrepreneurship model effects, educational background, as well as risk preferences. Results show that: (1) regional model effects have a positive effect on eastern urban entrepreneurial intention, but exert no significant effect on both rural and urban residents in the central and western China. (2) In urban areas, highly-educated residents are less likely to generate entrepreneurial intention. In rural areas, higher educational background promotes entrepreneurial intention of residents in the central and western regions, but it does not produce any influence on residents in the eastern region. (3) Urban residents who prefer higher-risk and higher-yield economic activities are more likely to generate entrepreneurial intention, but this intention would no longer change when the degree of tolerance to risk is high enough. And the degree of tolerance to risk of eastern residents is higher than their western counterparts. In rural areas, risk preferences have nothing to do with entrepreneurial intention, and this intention is even depressed by rural residents who refuse to take any risk.