This is a more advanced and comprehensive volume on the subject which portrays fully, the concept of rural settlements. The author has gone in detail through his field and personal surveys rather than official sources to present the chronological evolution, toponomy, regional distributions size, spacing, density, dispersion, morphological structure, dwellings and problems and planning of rural settlements. Various physico-cultural and techno-economic variables which exert the spatial distributions of rural settlements, have been dealt with the latest available statistical and cartographic techniques upto a micro-level set up. Copiously illustrated with original maps, diagrams and tables, the study describes in simple language the concepts and recent trends in the subject.