Identification and typology of rural areas in the study of their socio-economic development

The relevance of the research is confirmed by the need to develop and form an information and analytical resource of rural territories state of Russia within the framework of the State Program “Integrated Development of Rural Territories” for the period 2020-2025. The lack of methodological tools for assessing the state of rural areas, unified approaches in the interpretation of the notion “rural territory”, as the lack of municipal statistics as well, do not allow taking objective government decisions and developing measures for reasonable rural development. The article analyzes possible sources of information on the modern appearance of rural territories, domestic and foreign approaches to determining the essence of rural territories and their typologization are investigated. The obtained results of the research allowed to formulate proposals for improving the information and statistical base for studying rural areas.