This study aims to assess the green development levels of central and eastern China, explore the spatiotemporal evolution in green development in these regions, and compare their characteristics of green development patterns. Central and eastern China are the nation’s most economically dynamic and densely populated areas. These regions’ status of green development is highly critical for the country’s overall “green transformation”. In this paper, we first constructed a green development assessment index system and then utilized IFAHP to calculate the weights of indicators. After the data for these indicators was collected, GRA-TOPSIS was employed to measure the green development levels. We then analyzed the spatiotemporal evolution of green development levels in these areas and made a comparative analysis. Results reveal that the values of green development levels in all these regions range between 0.4 and 0.6 and that the levels of green development between the central and eastern regions show significant disparities. It was also found that the overall green development levels exhibited a trend of fluctuation with an upward trajectory. Additionally, we observed that the proportion of high-level regions remained consistently below 50%, and a spatial agglomeration pattern exists in these regions. This study can not only provide insights for governments in central and eastern China to formulate green development policies but also provide inspiration for other countries with similar conditions to design green development strategies.