TYPOLOGIES OF LITHUANIAN REGIONS BY RURALITY FOR REGIONAL POLICY

Typologies of Lithuanian regions based on various rurality criteria are presented in this paper. Selection of criteria for measuring rurality of the regions was focused on the challenges of the post-industrial development stage of society. The research results shows that classification of Lithuanian regions by rurality into 5 groups is a more comprehensive method to reveal economic and social differences of the regions than the method used by the government at the present by classifying regions in to the problematic and non-problematic regions. The typology based on rurality dimension is also better tailored to the needs of new regional policy paradigm because criteria as remoteness of the region, density of the population and number of residents at the center of the region used in these typologies are stable for a long time and help to highlight the specifics of the region that is unable to be changed quickly.