This is a data release for models indicating suitable habitat for waterfowl at a 1km resolution across China. Faced with limited data, we built species distribution models using a habitat suitability approach for China’s breeding and non-breeding waterfowl. An extensive review of the literature was used to determine model parameters for habitat modeling. Habitat relationships were implemented in GIS using land cover covariates. Wintering models were validated using waterfowl census data, while breeding models, though developed for many species, were only validated for the one species with sufficient telemetry data available. We developed suitability models for 42 waterfowl species (30 breeding and 39 wintering) at 1 km resolution for the extent of China.