Objective To explore the concentrations of rare earth elements (Rare earth elements, REEs) in drinking water in rare earth mining and non-mining areas in Shandong, Guangdong, and Jiangxi provinces of China. Methods Typical rare earth mining areas and 3 non-mining areas in the 3 provinces were selected for investigation. Drinking water of people in mining areas and non-mining areas were collected for 3 consecutive days by duplicate portion method. The contents of La, Ce, Pr, Nd, Sm, Eu, Gd, Tb, Dy, Ho, Er, Tm, Yb, Lu, Sc and Y in water samples were determined by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). Results The detection rate of each REEs in drinking water of mining and non-mining area was 12.98% to 86.64% and 1.07% to 69.04%, respectively. The average content of total REEs in drinking water in the mining area was 6.974 μg/L, with the maximum of 178.290 μg/L. The main elements were Ce, La, Nd, Y, Sc and Pr (≈90.0%). The average content of total REEs in drinking water in non-mining area was 0.772 μg/L, significantly lower than that in mining area (P<0.05); except for Tb, Ho and Tm, the contents of other REEs in drinking water from mining areas were significantly higher than those from non-mining areas (P<0.05). The total REEs contents in drinking water of mining areas in Guangdong and Jiangxi provinces were higher than that of non-mining areas (P<0.05), which were 90 times and 2 times of those of non-mining areas in average respectively. The average content of total REEs in drinking water of mining area in Shandong was higher than that of non-mining area, but with no statistical difference (P>0.05). Conclusion The contents of REEs in drinking water of mining area are higher than that of non-mining areas. Risk assessment of REEs exposure by drinking water should be further carried out for residents in mining areas.