Under the background that the Chinese government put forward the planning outline for building an innovative country from 2006 to 2020 and this has expired, this paper cites and studies the data of 30 provinces, cities and autonomous regions (except Xizang) in China from 2006 to 2019, with the innovation index as the new proxy variable of innovation, establishing a panel database and using C-D function for regression analysis. It demonstrates the impact of innovation ability on regional economic development through empirical analysis. In addition to making use of the data of 30 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions for respective analysis, four regions are divided into east, middle, west and northeast to compare regional differences. According to the analysis results, innovation ability plays a positive role in promoting China's economic development. Besides, there existing significant regional differences in the impact of innovation capability on economic development. The innovation ability in the central and western regions reveals a more significant and deeper influence on economic development than the average level in the eastern, northeastern regions and the whole country.