In order to realize sustainable development of the whole economic society, the evaluation of the energy efficiency level of energy consumption sectors (ECSs) is urgent and necessary. This study elaborated the concept of the energy efficiency improvement from the perspective of whole society to establish a macro-evaluating system (MES). Industry, transport, civil buildings are the three major ECSs in China at present. By analyzing the status of each energy consumption sector (ECS) and the relative energy efficiency technologies, a hierarchical evaluation model, including evaluation factors, sub-factors, weights for each factor and sub-factor, was proposed for each ECS. With the help of the Analytic Hierarchy Process with Delphi (AHPD) and Grey Correlation Degree (GCD) method, the comprehensive scores, namely, the weighted incidence degree was obtained. Three cases in Tianjin, China were taken as examples to prove the feasibility of the evaluation system. Typical cities, including Shenyang, Beijing, Wuhan, Guangzhou, Chengdu, Xi'an, located in different regions of China were evaluated and compared. Results demonstrated that the technical level was mainly influenced by policy and economic level. Recommendations for energy efficiency policy making and energy efficiency targets allocating were proposed for regions based on the evaluation results. (C) 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.