The Yellow River Basin is a crucially ecological barrier and economic belt in China, whose ecological protection and sustainable development are of great importance to the national development strategy. However, the low water-use efficiency and the improvable allocation scheme of water resources have impeded the holistic achievement of sustainable development in the Yellow River Basin. Here, this study adopted the evenness among SDGs and investigated the differences in the performance of sustainable development goals (SDGs), developing pathways, dependence on the water resources from the Yellow River, and water-use efficiency for agriculture and industry among nine provinces in the upper, middle and lower basins. The coordinated development strategy was then discussed based on the optimal utilization of water resources. Our results showed that:(1) from 2000 to 2015, the sustainable development score of the nine provinces of the Yellow River Basin had increased significantly. The middle and lower basins had a significantly better performance of SDGs than the upper basin only when neglecting the evenness among SDGs. (2) The deviation caused by ignoring the evenness among SDGs was also reflected at the provincial level. For example, Ningxia and Shanxi were previously considered to achieve well performances towards SDGs. However, their development was mainly reflected in a few SDGs, whereas many SDGs related to environmental protection had fallen back (e.g., SDG15). These results suggested that the performance of SDGs might be overestimated without considering the evenness among goals. (3) Regardless of the location along the Basin, the water consumption in many provinces was dependent on the Yellow River. However, the industrial and agricultural water consumption and water-use efficiency largely varied among these provinces. Generally, the water-use efficiency in the upper basin was relatively lower compared with that in the middle and lower basins. (4) The correlations between the water withdrawal amount and the 17 SDGs were different in the upper, middle, and lower basins. The amount of water withdrawal in the upper basin was irrelevant or negatively correlated with most of the SDGs, indicating that the limiting factor for its sustainable development was not the water resources; while the increase in water withdrawal could promote some SDGs related to economic and social development in the middle and lower basins. Overall, this study points out that it is important to strengthen the cooperation among the upper, middle, and lower basins through optimizing the industrial structure and water resources allocation, which could further promote the overall water-use efficiency and the ecological conservation of the whole basin, and eventually achieve the sustainable development of the whole Yellow River Basin.