Modernization of agriculture, whose gravest problem is labour surplus and connected with it dispersed area structure, among others, relies on diminishing employment. Abandoning agriculture cannot imply migration from rural areas. Therefore, employment opportunities should be created for those who would abandon work in agriculture but would remain in the country. The main stipulation in the considerations of rural areas future is multifunctional development, whose rate and trends depend on many factors. Multifunctionality of rural areas resolves itself to proper, multidirectional utilization of rural potential determined by the above mentioned factors to create new, off-farm jobs. It should be emphasized that local specificity particularly socio-economic conditionings, play a crucial role in the process of multidirectional rural development.The main research problems discussed in the paper focused on the analysis of the rural areas environment effect on multifunctional development of these areas. Verification of the assumed research hypotheses resolved itself to answers to four questions:1. Are there any differences in the level of multifunctional development of communes and on what factors do they depend?2. Does the impact of multifunctional development factors depend on current level of multifunctionality?3. Do the rural dwellers have various preferences concerning multifunc-tional development and what do these preferences depend on?4. Do the opinions ...
