Foreign direct investment (FDI) plays an indispensable role in the socio-economic development of countries and plays a key role in promoting regional GDP growth. To investigate the differentiated impact of FDI on regional GDP growth in China, this paper proposes the Dagum Gini coefficient calculation method to compare whether FDI investment disparities across regions have contributed to economic gaps between coastal and inland regions. The OLS statistical regression method is employed as the empirical research method to determine the selection of dependent variables, control variables, and other variables. Using sample data from China spanning 2006 to 2023, empirical analysis is conducted. The analysis results indicate that the uneven distribution of FDI inevitably influences the economic disparities among China’s eastern, central, and western regions. The Gini coefficient of FDI distribution differences generally moves in the same direction as the Gini coefficient of per capita GDP differences. Through full-sample benchmark, heterogeneity, and robustness tests, it is confirmed that improvements in FDI quality can significantly promote regional GDP growth.
