The building material intensity coefficients is the most commonly used method to estimated building material stock and resource recycling potential in the urban building system at various spatial-temporal scales because of its high accuracy, efficiency and conciseness. With the circular economy become the research hotspot, some building material intensity coefficients datasets have been reported in diverse type of literature (e.g., journals, books and reports). These scattered datasets are being compiled, and building material intensity coefficients are currently for some countries (e.g., Japan, Germany and Sweden) except for in an important country of world, China which has the most rapid urbanization. Therefore, in this study, we carried out an extensive survey and critical review of the literature (from 1949-2017) on building material intensity coefficients in China and developed China’s building material intensity coefficient dataset (CBMICD1.0). This dataset consists of 813 different aged buildings with different structures located in 30 provinces in China and their associated background information (e.g. geographical location, building application and building structure).The dataset which provides essential supporting information for researchers on circular economy, is helping to provide a better understanding of the availability of resources in the city and its future potential supply for recycling as well as to develop strategies for the management of construction and demolition waste.