Taking the Yellow River Basin as an example, in this study the coupling and coordinated development of new urbanization and ecological environment was examined, and the spatiotemporal differentiation and synchronous development state of the coupling and coordination from 2005 to 2016 were measured. Based on the Tobit model of random effect, the influencing factors of the coupling of new urbanization and ecological environment in the Yellow River Basin were explained. The findings can be summarized as follows: (1) Index values of the new urbanization and ecological environment subsystems and the coupling and coordination degree of the Yellow River Basin were rising first and then declining. (2) The average coupling degree of new urbanization and ecological environment was between 0.34~0.70, which was in the stage of moderate development. The average coordination degree of new urbanization and ecological environment in the Yellow River Basin was between 0.20~0.60, which was in the stage of low coordination and moderate coordination; (3) More than 78% of the cities in the Yellow River Basin lagged behin in ecological environment protection and the pressure of ecological environment are prominent under the background of rapid urbanization. (4) The level of economic development, capacity of the governments, and investment in science and technology have a positive impact on the degree of coupling and coordination; the degree of opening and the level of industrialization have different effects on the coupling and coordination of the upper and middle-lower reaches of the Yellow River Basin. Additional, reducing path dependency has great significance for promoting the coupling of new urbanization and ecological environment. Differentiated strategies should be adopted to promote the coupling development of new urbanization and ecological environment across the Yellow River Basin.