Exploring drought propagation characteristics and regional drivers is crucial for early drought warning and disaster prevention and mitigation in the basin. Based on the month-by-month precipitation and runoff data of the Luanhe River Basin from 1960 to 2014, the temporal and spatial evolution characteristics of meteorological and hydrological droughts, meteorological-hydrological drought propagation characteristics and their driving factors were analyzed by using the standardized precipitation index and the standardized runoff index, and combining with the run theory, the Pearson correlation analysis method, and the variance decomposition method. The results show that: (1) meteorological droughts in the Luanhe basin occur much more frequently than hydrological droughts, and droughts in the upper reaches are more frequent but shorter in duration and less in intensity. (2) Hydrological droughts in the Luanhe basin are commonly triggered by meteorological droughts, but not every meteorological drought triggers hydrological droughts. There are multiple drought propagation modes, and the drought propagation time ranges from 3-6 months, with the drought propagation time in the upper reaches being longer than that of the lower reaches. (3) The influence of watershed characteristics such as slope on drought propagation time is more significant than meteorological factors such as temperature, with slope and LAI explaining 36.1% and 28.7% of the spatial differences in drought propagation time, respectively.