The traditional five special economic zones still made remarkable achievements in innovation and development in 2019 despite adverse conditions such as the intensified Sino-US trade conflicts and the decline in macroeconomic growth. Notwithstanding，constrained by the negative impacts of the external environment，the special economic zones showed slow growth and even decline in terms of some innovation and development indicators. As seen from the analysis of this report，the differences in the innovation and development of the special economic zones were closely related to the economic scale and government fiscal status；the impact of import and export was more related to the industrial development scale and level，and was less subject to the foreign trade dependence. Moreover，the negative impact of high housing prices on innovation and development cannot be underestimated. So，we think that the special economic zones should design the strategy of innovation and development based on their comparative advantages when further promoting innovation development. In dealing with external risks，the special economic zones should take expanding and strengthening competitive industries as the fundamental starting points. In addition，more effective measures should be taken to control the rise of housing prices in order to maintain the attractiveness of the city.