Municipalities' rural development index: a study based on the 2006 Agricultural Census.

Rural aspects have been emphasized due to new attributes and interrelationships with the development of different regions. Based on this finding, the article aims to present a new index of rural development. For this purpose, the selected analytical method was factor analysis with data from the 2006 Agricultural Census. Despite the time lag in the data, the results indicated consistent references to explain rural development, as explained below. The contribution and differentials stem from the set of variables that make up the proposed index, which represents the particularities of the economic development dimensions (economic, environmental, social, and demographic) related to rurality. Secondly, they derive from producing the rurality economic development index, based on all Brazilian municipalities and composed of a set of 9 factors, capable of measuring and categorizing the level of economic development of rural areas in municipalities and large Brazilian regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]