Disclosed herein is a local dimming driving method and device of a Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) device, which is capable of preventing color change due to gray scale saturation when data is compensated while enabling local dimming. The local dimming driving method of the LCD device includes detecting maximum values per pixel from input image data, analyzing the maximum values per pixel on a block-by-block basis, and determining local dimming values per block according to the analysis result, calculating a first gain value using the local dimming values per block, calculating a maximum gain value per pixel using the maximum value per pixel as a second gain value, selecting a smaller value of the first and second gain values as a final gain value, compensating the input image data using the final gain value, and controlling luminance of a backlight unit on the block-by-block basis using the local dimming value per block.