Summary:

Infrastructure is one of the most important factors of rural development and its deficiencies decide about a low living standard, make farming difficult and cause low attractiveness of rural areas for investors. The paper presents research on the relationships between the level of rural infrastructure development and the quality of social surrounding of the rural areas. The studies were based on statistical material obtained from 97 administrative territorial units (rural gminas and from the areas of urban-rural gminas) of the świętokrzyskie province. It was assumed that the impact of technical infrastructure on the quality of social surrounding is variable. In order to verify this assumption the researched gminas community was divided according to the quality of social surrounding and three clusters were identified using the k-means method of cluster detection. The correlation analysis conducted between the quality of social surrounding and the quality of infrastructural space in the identified groups revealed a positive correlation relationship (r=0.45) in the group of gminas characterized by an average quality of social surrounding. The relationship is much weaker in the group of gminas of low quality of social surrounding. The third group of gminas, where the highest quality of social surrounding was registered numbered only 8 objects. Because of small number of objects in this group it was impossible to conduct statistical analysis. Rural areas development, where community development is an important factor reveals a relationship with infrastructure development. At the initial stage of rural development infrastructure attracts people, whereas at the later stage the community becomes the stimulator of further infrastructure development.