Variations in the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) reflect the global land surface vegetation coverage, which is important for the analysis of the ecological environment. In this study, the spatiotemporal variation in global land surface vegetation NDVI and its climatic driving factors were analyzed for the period 1982-2014, using the GIMMS NDVI3g data set. The results show that the NDVI of global land surface vegetation was increasing during the study period. Although the NDVI of most areas in the southern hemisphere is generally higher than that of most areas in the northern hemisphere, the increase in NDVI in the northern hemisphere is higher than that in the southern hemisphere. Temperature and precipitation have different effects on NDVI at different spatiotemporal scales. Temperature is the driving factor for NDVI variation in most parts of the northern hemisphere, whereas precipitation is the driving factor for NDVI variation in the southern hemisphere.