As China successfully won the tough battle against poverty, advancing common prosperity on all fronts has gradually become an important task in realizing Chinese modernization. The evaluation index system for common prosperity is constructed of four dimensions of “affluence, sharing, commonality, and sustainability”, and the Entropy weight-TOPSIS method, Theil index, and Multiscale geographically weighted regression are applied to analyzing the spatio-temporal evolution and influencing factors of common prosperity level in the Wuling Mountain area. The results show that the level of common prosperity in the Wuling Mountain area was low but slowly increased from 2011 to 2021. The spatial development pattern of common prosperity in the Wuling Mountain area shows an evolutionary trend of being “fast in the north and east, and slow in the south and west". The core counties have a positive spillover effect on the neighboring counties. The overall gap in the level of common prosperity in the Wuling Mountain area displays a trend of “weakly fluctuating and slightly declining”, with the main source of development differences within the Hunan region. Each factor shows various impact intensit on the level of common prosperity in the Wuling Mountain area and its fluctuation directions at different times. Among these factors, GDP per capita has the strongest impact and always plays a positive role. The conclusions of this study can provide a theoretical basis and scientific reference for the less developed regions to effectively articulate rural revitalization and realize common prosperity.