China has turned to be one of the world’s most significant foreign direct investment (FDI) recipients, with FDI stock second only to the United States. Even though total FDI in China is substantially large, the spatial distribution of FDI is extremely uneven. The eastern coastal regions have always been important areas of China to receive FDI. Among the eastern coastal areas, Jiangsu province is consistently ranked second behind Guangdong province in terms of total FDI in China. However, FDI inflows of Jiangsu province surpassed Guangdong province for the first time in 2003. Although Jiangsu province has become a remarkable destination of FDI, the current FDI growth rate has started reducing. Therefore, it is crucial to investigate the determinants of FDI in Jiangsu province. Consequently, this study examines the determinants of FDI in Jiangsu province by employing an autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model with annual data during 1985-2019. In addition, we apply the Toda-Yamamoto Granger causality test to increase the robustness of our empirical results. The findings show that FDI in Jiangsu province is determined by average wage, education, and per capita GDP. Consequently, Jiangsu authorities should implement a policy to ensure a low wage rate and promote education in order to attract more FDI. In addition, the policy on economic development is needed to promote inward FDI in Jiangsu.