Due to the limited energy of wireless sensor networks (WSN), lots of research works have been done with topology algorithm in WSN. To solve the problem of the unbalanced energy consumption and improve the life circle, this paper proposes an Improved Energy Efficient Unequal Clustering (IEEUC) algorithm based on node degree, the clusters closer to the base station have less members than the farther one. Thus cluster heads closer to the base station can preserve some energy for the inter-cluster data forwarding. Theoretic analysis and simulation results prove that the proposed algorithm can effectively balance the energy consumption and improve the lifetime of the networks.