The rapidly growing carbon emissions of residential building operations have become an obstacle to China’s commitment to achieving its carbon-neutral goals by 2060, but they also demonstrate great carbon mitigation potential. To help buildings reach carbon neutrality targets, this study decomposes the drivers of carbon emissions and evaluates the changes in carbon mitigation of residential buildings across 30 Chinese provinces from 2000 to 2018. The results indicate that (1) the operational carbon intensity increased in most provinces and the average annual growth rate across the 30 provinces was 4.2%; (2) from 2001 to 2018, North China and Northeast China had the highest average annual carbon mitigation intensity, at 602.7 and 376.9 kg of carbon dioxide per household, respectively. However, Northwest China had the highest carbon mitigation efficiency, with a carbon mitigation rate of 23.5%; and (3) in most cases, the total carbon mitigations of the operational residential buildings assessed at the provincial scale higher than those assessed nationwide, with a difference of 14.4 million tons of carbon dioxide on average. In addition, this study reviewed the energy efficiency codes for residential buildings and summarized effective energy efficiency measures. Overall, this study fills a gap in our understanding of carbon mitigation tools and provides a reference for the evaluation of historical carbon mitigation effects in the operation of residential buildings.

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