Township is an important regional unit for the realization of new urbanization and rural vitalization in the new era. Both sustainable economic development and land use intensity are major issues in the new urbanization stage. Many concerns about the healthy development of towns are focused on the efficiency of economic development and the scale of land use. Therefore, the multi-factor comprehensive evaluation method was used to measure the level of economic development and land use intensity of 109 sampled towns in Jiangsu province. Furthermore, the correlation characteristics between land use intensity and economic development were discussed based on correlation analysis. The results show that: (1) The correlation of economic development and land use intensity of sampled towns is significantly positive (r=0.841, P<0.01), the better the economic development, the more intensive the land use. The "exponential growth" effect of increasing population size on economic development and land use intensity is more significant than the "linear growth" due to the expansion of built-up area. After the population size of towns reaches roughly 50 to 60 thousand, the level of economic development and land use intensity would accelerate significantly. (2) In terms of the average scores of economic development and land use intensity in different types of towns, as in economic regions, Southern Jiangsu > Central Jiangsu > Northern Jiangsu; in terms of development types, national key towns > non-key towns > xiang (township, a type of towns in China, more similar to rural community); as for industries, secondary industry > tertiary industry > balanced development industry > primary industry. (3) The degree of correlation between the two parts presents a differentiated feature. Southern Jiangsu has a significantly higher degree than Central and Northern Jiangsu; the larger the population in size, the higher the correlation between the two parts. However, the correlation caused by the increased built-up of towns is not obvious. Besides, the correlation degree of the national key towns is significantly higher than that of the non-key towns, and the correlation degree of balanced development industry and industry-oriented townships is relatively high, while that of agriculture-oriented townships is the lowest. The implications for the healthy development of towns is that the towns should focus on the coordination of plans, polarized development, enhance the attraction to population, and reach the ideal population threshold.