The article is dedicated to the analysis of existing rural area development programs both in Russia and abroad. Based on this analysis, it was discovered that the Russian experience is mostly oriented to the institutional aspect of development while the foreign experience is oriented on the humanitarian direction of the rural area development. In this article, a synthetic approach is applied for estimation of the rural area development in the Republic of Tatarstan as exemplified by two municipal formations that allowed to estimate qualitative values of the living environment and to perform indication of the economic progress. Due to the research it was found out that the problem is not so much in the lack of social infrastructure in rural settlements, but in their qualitative conformance to modern requirements of the population.