摘要：The rural development of southeastern Bahia is marked by fortress differences. In this sense, we started with the current situation in order to understand the factors that contribute to the changes in rural areas by taking the region as a benchmark for analysis. It was adopted as method the index of Rural Development (IDR), composed of four indexes. It was found that the municipalities with the worst rates of regional development are largely rural population, lower population densities and agricultural production with low added value. The towns near the cities with the highest overall population showed the best results. The Identity Territory Itapetinga, Bahia, Brazil, provides the highest rates. The index of social welfare has proved to be the variable key with the greatest force in determining the development of rural regions analyzed.
