The area of the City of Zagreb is the only Croatian region (NUTS 3), which is defined as an urban area. Fourteen of the twenty counties are classified as exceptionally rural, and six of them are classified as rural areas. Because of this division, the inhabitants of the rural areas of the Zagreb area can not be beneficiaries of European aid which is targeting the development of rural areas. The purpose of the project is to investigate the current status, trends and development perspectives in these areas.