<p>The panel entropy method, Theil index, and kernel density estimation method are used to analyze the development and differences in digital infrastructure, digital economic environment, agricultural digitalization, and digital life in 30 regions of China from 2017 to 2022. The results showed that digital agriculture had the highest index, indicating that it contributed the most to the rural digital economy. Logistics and network construction had a weight of 0.038 and 0.025, respectively, reflecting the importance of their infrastructure. The overall weight of agricultural machinery was 0.171, which promoted the development of agricultural digitalization. The weight of telemedicine and online education was 0.45, indicating that there was still a lot of room for improvement. From 2017 to 2022, the level of the rural digital economy gradually improved, but there were gradient differences in the development speed among regions, with the average annual growth rate of the eastern, central, western, and northeastern regions being 10.692%, 9.638%, 13.643%, and 5.862%, respectively. According to the Theil index, the regional disparity has widened since 2018, with the intra-eastern disparity contributing 34.6% to the national disparity. In terms of regional coordination, it reveals regional differences and evolution laws, promotes the complementarity of advantages between regions, realizes the balanced development of the rural digital economy, injects strong impetus into the implementation of rural revitalization strategy, and effectively enhances the academic and practical value of research.</p>