The quantitative measurement of sustainable development has become one of the frontiers of sustainable development research since the concept was put forward. Ecological footprint theory, as an important tool for the quantitative assessment of regional sustainable development, is currently accepted by a majority of experts and scholars. The ecological footprint concept was formally introduced by William Rees and Mathis Wackernagel in the early 1990s, and it was then used widely as a measure of sustainability. However, it is also criticized by scholars because evidence, such as static accounts, suggests that it falls short. In this paper, a method used for determining spatial and temporal disparities in ecological footprints is presented, and then combined with development capacity indexes, the evaluation criteria for ecological pressure based on the ecological pressure index and ecological deficit, and the evaluation criteria for ecological economic systems based on sustainable development capacity index. It is then applied to the Xinjiang Region for the time period spanning 1995 to 2010. The results indicate that from 1995 to 2010, the overall ecological deficit and ecological pressure index grew rapidly: the ecological deficit increased from 0.3702 hm²/capita in 1995 to 2.5395 hm²/capita in 2010, and the pressure index increased from 1.21 in 1995 to 2.51 in 2010. The Xinjiang Region has been changed from a low-ecological pressure area to a middle-ecological pressure area; this indicates that Xinjiang Region's development is unsustainable. On the other hand, development capacity grew slowly; the development capacity index increased from 2.88 in 1995 to 4.57 in 2010, which can be attributed to the low index of the ecological footprint's diversity. Additionally, the Xinjiang Region had improved resource-use efficiency; the ecological footprint of 10,000 Yuan GDP decreased from 4.1983 hm² in 1995 to 1.6942 hm² in 2010. At the state level, regional disparity in Xinxiang's ecological footprint continued to increase, the number of ecological deficit areas rose, and every state's ecological pressure index grew rapidly. The ecological footprints of Karamay City and Kashi Prefecture were 14.6565 hm²/capita (the largest) and 0.6572 hm²/capita (the smallest) respectively in 1995 while they were 34.9865 hm²/capita and 2.4912 hm²/capita respectively in 2010. There were five ecological deficit areas in 1995, while there were thirteen ecological deficit areas in 2010. This indicates that every state became more unsustainable, especially Urumqi City, Karamay City, and Shihezi City, which had been in high ecological pressure areas since 1995 because of their high level of economic development and urbanization. The reason every state's ecological pressure index grew rapidly is rapid economic development throughout the analyzed period. At the same time, every state's development capacity and resource-use efficiency had been improved, but regional disparity continued to widen, which can be attributed to the differences in resource endowment and the social economic foundation. According to the above results, the present developing model is not sustainable, the ecological environment is at risk, and Xinjiang Region's sustainable development faces a sizable challenge. Therefore, the following suggestions are proposed: introduction of new technology to increase yield, and improvements in energy and land utilization.