Natural and rural areas

Rurality, an object in redefinition

A new approach to rural areas by INSEE, similar to others in Europe

Covering a large part of the European Union and serving productive, agricultural, recreational, and ecological functions, European rural areas are very diverse. Being cross-border, they are often perceived differently on each side of the border, with dynamics varying depending on whether one considers just one side or the entire cross-border territory. Moreover, rural areas cannot be defined as merely the opposite of cross-border urban agglomerations, as their interdependencies are intimately constitutive of their development. In France, to allow for a better consideration of the rural phenomenon and ensure a closer alignment of definitions at the European level, INSEE proposes a new definition of rural areas.

Until 2020, municipalities were considered rural as long as they did not belong to an urban unit (clusters of more than 2,000 inhabitants in an area showing some continuity of built-up space). The INSEE’s new definition of rural areas includes morphological criteria (variation in population density) as well as functional criteria (the role of territories as places of residence, work, or consumption) to capture the multiple forms of rurality in France and to allow for the classification of several types of rural municipalities. The methodologies used are directly inspired by harmonized methods at the European level, particularly the municipal density grid developed by Eurostat to compare the degree of urbanization across European countries.

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