This study evaluates the social management level of 36 key cities from 14 indicators in 3 dimensions：input and development level，service and livelihood level，and equity and security level. We find that the social management level of the relatively economically undeveloped area improves more than the economically developed area，the main reason for this phenomenon is that the difficulty of social management will gradually increase with the expansion of the urban scale，and at the same time，the problem of insufficient social and public service personnel generally exists in the first-tier cities. Another conclusion is that the differences within first-tier cities are obvious，Guangzhou and Shenzhen are not performing well in terms of equity and security compared with Beijing and Shanghai，and to achieve catch-up in social management level，more investment should be made in improving social security system，narrowing the income gap between urban and rural areas and improving aging service system.