Urban lakes, as the blue spaces for water and gas exchange between cities and nature, provide a variety of ecological services, including water supply, flood control, leisure, climate regulation. China's vast territory and numerous cities result in significant spatial difference in urban lakes influenced by natural geographical conditions and socio-economic development. Existing research has focused on the spatial distribution and changing characteristics of lakes in provincial capital cities and individual large cities in China, but there is still a lack of comprehensive analysis of the spatial patterns and influencing factors of urban lake distribution within administrative units at the national scale. In this study, based on the dataset of urban lakes in China, we conducted statistical analysis and comparison of the distribution characteristics of urban lakes from three aspects: geographical units of urban distribution, administrative levels, and city size. By integrating natural and human activity factors, we explored the key controlling factors that influence the distribution scale and abundance of urban lakes. The results showed that in 2020, there were about 110000 urban lakes with an area greater than 0.001 km² nationwide (excluding large lakes such as Tai Lake and Dianchi Lake), with a total area of approximately 2112 km², accounting for about 1.1% of the total urban area (impervious layer area detected by remote sensing). Urban lake distribution exhibited significant agglomeration and differentiation characteristics, with more than 70% of urban lakes distributed in about 20% of county (district) level administrative units, and about 21% of county (district) level administrative units had virtually no urban lake distribution (less than 10 pixels in 10 m resolution remote sensing images). The county (district) with the largest number of urban lakes was Binhai New Area of Tianjin, with 1846 lakes, while Hongshan District of Wuhan had the largest urban lake area, reaching 67.2 km². Overall, provincial capitals with higher urban levels had a more concentrated distribution of urban lakes, with a lake density (i.e., lake area/urban area) of 1.6%, significantly higher than that of prefecture-level cities (1.3%) and county (district) level units (0.8%). Statistical analysis showed that the distribution of urban lakes was significantly positively correlated with temperature, precipitation, population, GDP, and urban area, and strong negatively correlated with urban altitude and topographic undulation. The statistical regression model analysis indicated that urban area, precipitation, GDP, and topographic relief were the main controlling factors affecting the spatial differentiation characteristics of urban lakes in China. This research will provide a scientific reference for a comprehensive understanding of the distribution characteristics of urban lakes in China and provide geographical background information for the resource utilization and ecological environment protection of urban lakes.