Foreign approaches to defining and developing typologies of rural areas

The article presents the results of systematization, analysis and generalization of existing foreign experience in the field of definition (identification) of rural areas and their typology. Distinctive features of classifying areas as rural, typical for the countries of the European Union and Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development member states, are revealed. The content, possibilities and limiting factors of using methodological approaches to developing typologies of rural areas are established.