Aiming at solving the problem of the lifetime and the energy efficiency in wireless sensor networks, we proposed a distributed load-balanced uneven clustering algorithm named DLUC. The algorithm adopted ring-based model and data transmission from one ring to the neighbor to finish multi-hop communication between cluster heads. It sets distance threshold in different rings to build unequal size of clusters. DLUC can effectively avoid the "hot spots" problem. In the stage of a multi-hop routing tree conformation, we considered the energy and the distance of relay cluster head nodes. Simulation results indicate that compared with LEACH and EEUC, DLUC balances the consumption better and prolongs the lifetime of networks effectively.