Town building is one of the most important methods for China to promote new-pat-terns of urbanization in ethnic minority areas. This article analyzes the characteristics of the scale, distribution,population and economic development of towns in ethnic areas. The study finds that at present,the population scale of the towns in ethnic areas is relatively small;town construction in eth-nic areas takes place with a low population densi-ty;and the contacts between towns are weak;In the recent decade,the industrial and occupational structure of the population in ethnic regions shows a reversed adjustment trend. Although there are some improvement in infrastructure construction in these towns,the overall infrastructure in the rural area of the towns is backward—cable TV,waste treatment,per capita electricity and highway den-sity lag largely behind other parts of the country, and, if compared with the eastern and central parts,the gap is even greater. Most employees of towns in the ethnic areas still take the primary in-dustry sector as their priority( agriculture,forest-ry,etc);the proportion of non-farm employment is less than 40%. Employment in secondary indus-try is low. The driving function of industrial ag-glomeration in the towns is weak,and it is difficult to drive the economic development of the towns. Although agriculture is still the base and main body of the town economy in the ethnic areas,invest-ment in agriculture is insufficient. The increasing returns and positive externalities from economic ac-tivity on spatial agglomeration is an important moti-vation for the economic development of less devel-oped bodies.