Abstract In this paper, the 8 indexes which include elevation, slope, aspect, surface curvature, humidity index, solar radiation index, soil types, and soil textures are selected to evaluate the growth suitability of Carya Cathayensis Sarg. The results show that, the descending order sorted by weight of each index which calculated by AHP is: soil types(0.2373), soil textures(0.1983), elevation(0.1888), aspect(0.1387), slope(0.0911), solar radiation index(0.0697), humidity index(0.0452) and surface curvature(0.0309), and in comparison to the results calculated by PCA: except for the slope and aspect, the other indexes are in the same order. It prove that, the AHP method in evaluating the Carya Cathayensis Sarg's growth suitability is effective to some extent.