Article analyses tendencies of general and regional development of Lithuania's rural settlement network in the period of 1989-2011. Also, in the article is briefly reviewed the heritage of rural politics of the soviet period. The analysis is based on the data of general population and housing census of 1989, 2001 and 2011, submitted by the Lithuanian Department of Statistics. It is also based on researches carried out by Lithuanian scientists during previous years. [...] The article states that remains rather significant historically formed regional rural settlement differences in Lithuania. In municipalities of the Eastern Lithuania the average village size is about twice smaller than the average of Lithuania (60 inhabitants). In the municipalities of Zarasai, Molėtai, Ignalina in a village live hardly about 20 people at an average and in small villages (with up to 100 inhabitants) live about a half of all inhabitants of villages. Moving from East to West (with some exceptions) rural settlements become larger. In the Western Lithuania most rural settlements are larger: the average village size reaches 100 and more inhabitants and about a half of inhabitants live in the large settlements (>500 inhabitants). Apart from this East-West direction also a centre-periphery direction appears: big cities are surrounded by larger settlements (>500 inhabitants). The alternation of rural population in different Lithuania regions also differs: during recent years rural population increased only around three Lithuanian largest cities. During the previous years the most intensive rates of depopulation were in the North Eastern part of Lithuania and the least intensive - in the Western part of Lithuania.However, during the latest years in some territories (Šiauliai, Alytus, Tauragė districts) the rates of rural depopulation already reached and in some cases even exceeded the rates of depopulation of the Eastern Lithuania. Comparing the alternation of rural population in rural settlements of different size, regional regularities emerge as well. The population increase in the surroundings of large cities was determined by changes that occurred in medium and large settlements: in the surroundings of Vilnius and Kaunas cities the population increased mostly in settlements with 200-499 people (population in them increased by 30-35 per cent). Around Klaipėda the large settlements (>500 inhabitants) grew the most (population increased by over 50 per cent). If large settlements around the large cities grew the most, so in peripheral regions (especially in - the Northern and the North-Eastern Lithuania) the population mostly in the large settlements decreased. In those municipalities where the rates of rural depopulation were the highest, namely the rural depopulation in larger rural settlements essentially determined the common negative tendencies of rural population alternation. In municipalities of Šiauliai district the population in settlements with more than 200 inhabitants decreased about 30 per cent and in the largest settlements (>500 inhabitants) the population decreased about 50 per cent. In the Eastern Lithuania (Molėtai, Utena, Švenčionys municipalities) where small villages prevail, the population in larger settlements (>500 inhabitants) also decreased about 50 per cent. The system of Lithuania's rural settlement (except surroundings of the cities, where town-residents live in rural territories) practically lost the connections with current economical use of rural territories. Evident inadequacy between current economic system and rural settlement structure cause the main social problems in rural territories. [...
