Coupling Coordination and Functional Deviation in Human–Land Relationships Across China’s Urbanized Areas

China’s rapid urbanization has been accompanied by a growing mismatch between population concentration and urban land expansion. Assessing the coordination of human–land relationships in urbanized areas and the extent to which they deviate from the functions assigned under major function-oriented zoning is essential for advancing new-type urbanization and improving the territorial spatial development pattern. Using 1227 valid county-level units from 1304 urbanized areas and data from the sixth and seventh national population censuses and the second and third national land surveys, this study develops a “human–land coupling + functional deviation” framework that integrates the coupling coordination degree model, the Tapio decoupling model, and GIS overlay analysis. Three main findings emerge. First, the mean human–land coupling coordination degree remained broadly stable, edging down from 0.686 in 2010 to 0.685 in 2020. It increased in 48.9% of units and decreased in 51.1%, with an increase of 0.017 in the western region and a decrease of 0.029 in the northeast. Extensive land expansion nevertheless persisted: 38.2% of units had an expansion elasticity above 1.2, and urban construction land grew faster (52.6%) than the urban population (42.7%). Second, cross-tabulating relative coordination levels and decoupling states yielded six types. High-quality coordination and low-coordination extensive expansion were the two most common, accounting for 26.4% and 21.9%, respectively, while coordinated shrinkage and low-coordination shrinkage predominated in the northeast, indicating an overall decline. Third, 349 units (28.4%) deviated markedly from their designated functions: 26.9% of those in optimized development zones and 30.9% of those in key development zones. These deviations took the form of over-development and misalignment in the former and pseudo-development and shrinkage in the latter. The findings provide empirical support for differentiated governance and the dynamic adjustment of major function-oriented zones.