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The regional water-saving irrigation management level (WIML) varies due to the differences in natural conditions and economic levels in different regions, so how to screen reasonable evaluation indexes and build a scientific and comprehensive WIML evaluation model is of great significance. In this paper, we selected 14 indexes (both qualitative and quantitative) from 4 aspects of water-saving administrative management, engineering management, water use management and operation management to set up an evaluation index system of WIML in 21 cities (states) of Sichuan Province, a large agricultural province in China. The objective weight determined by the entropy weight method and subjective weight determined by the analytic hierarchy process method were combined to judge the relative importance of each index. Furthermore, the set pair analysis method was applied to evaluate WIML in different regions. Results show the overall management level of water-saving irrigation in Sichuan Province was 'general'; 43% regions were at the 'good' level; 43% of regions were at 'general' and 'poor' level; 14% of regions were at the 'poorer' level. WIML varied in different cities (states), and Sichuan Province had great potential for improvement of WIML. Although the evaluation criterion and method will be further improved in other regions or in the future, the study provided the theory foundation for improving the water-saving irrigation management level in Sichuan Province. (c) 2018 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.