New Interpretation of Human–Land Relations: Evidence from the Impact of Population Aging on Resource Utilization Efficiency in the Yellow River Basin

In the current context of global resource constraints and sustainable development, the efficient utilization of resources in the Yellow River basin, as one of China’s main economic regions, is particularly important. Based on the Super-SBM model with undesirable outputs, we analyze the spatial–temporal evolution of resource utilization efficiency in the Yellow River basin during 2000–2020 and investigate the impact of population aging on it using a fixed effects regression model and spatial Durbin model. The resource utilization efficiency has shown an overall upward trend in the Yellow River basin, which never realizes the DEA efficiency. There remains considerable room for efficiency improvement. There is an obvious spatial heterogeneity in resource utilization efficiency, presenting a spatial pattern of “leading downstream, intermediate midstream and lagging upstream”. Resource utilization efficiency has a high redundancy rate in terms of environmental pollution output, water resource input, science and education input in the Yellow River basin. Currently, excessive resource consumption and excessive pollutant emissions are the main causes of efficiency loss. Population aging not only promotes regional resource utilization efficiency but also has a significant positive spatial spillover effect in neighboring regions. Population aging’s impact shows heterogeneity, with a significant promoting impact on resource-based cities and other cities, while its promoting impact on provincial capital cities is not significant.