Ecological management zoning is a crucial approach for achieving effective ecosystem management and serves as the foundational premise for ecological conservation and management. It holds significant importance for improving the structure of regional ecosystems, advancing the construction of ecological civilization, and enhancing human well-being. This study focused on counties within the Yellow River basin as the basic research units and estimated the supply and demand for six typical ecosystem services in 2020, including grain production, water yield, carbon sequestration, soil conservation, habitat quality, and recreational recreation. By integrating Maslow's hierarchy of needs theory for a stratified analysis of ecosystem service supply and demand, and employing quadrant methods and a coupling coordination degree model, ecological management zones within the Yellow River basin were delineated. The results indicated that: (1) In 2020, the supply and demand patterns of the six ecosystem services in the Yellow River basin displayed significantly spatial differences, with supply showing a "high in the south, low in the north" distribution, and demand showing a "high in the east, low in the west" pattern, closely related to regional ecological land use and human activities. (2) The comprehensive supply and demand of ecosystem services were influenced by the diversity and hierarchy of human needs for different types of ecosystem services, with high-supply areas located in the southern basin where the ecological conditions were favorable, and high-demand areas in core cities and their surrounding counties, such as Zhengzhou, Xi'an, and Jinan. (3) The Yellow River basin was classified into five ecological management zones: A) Potential zones, which required the exploitation of ecosystem service potential and improvement of service utilization efficiency; B) Improvement zones, needing the enhanced ecosystem service supply capacity and environmental quality; C) Conservation zones, where ecological protection and restoration should be strengthened to reduce external disturbances; D) Regulation zones, necessitating maintenance of ecological environments and adjustment of agricultural structures for the unity of environmental, social, economic, and ecological benefits; E) Coordination zones, aiming to balance the supply and demand of ecosystem services and harmonize the development of economy, society, and ecological protection. The study provides references for the optimization of land space and management and conservation of ecosystem services in the Yellow River basin.