Objective/Meaning The digital rural development is one of effective driving forces for promoting the county-level economic growth under the new situation. Investigating the effect of digital rural development on the county-level economic growth holds substantial practical significance for advancing the high-quality development of county-level economies and fostering the integrated urban-rural development.

Methods/Procedures The fixed effect model was used to systematically analyze the impact and mechanism of digital rural development on the county-level economic growth by constructing a dataset that matched the county-level index of Digital Villages from 2019 to 2020 and China County Statistical Yearbook.

Results/Conclusions The results showed that the digital rural development has significantly promoted the local county-level economic growth. Moreover, the mechanism analysis showed that the digital rural development would promote the county-level economic growth by facilitating the reflow of capital and enhancing the level of industrial agglomeration. Finally, the heterogeneity analysis showed that in the eastern regions and those with a higher level of traditional financial development, the county-level economic growth effect of digital rural development was more significant, and the financial institutions’ support was inclined towards the digitalization of rural governance and the digitalization of rural life.