This project is divided into three research questions: 1) What are the regional disparities across Europe, specifically among rural regions and within the seven RurAction countries? What is the trend over time?; 2) What socio-economic characteristics lead to regional parity within countries and economic growth for rural regions?; and 3) How have rural regions responded to the recent crisis? The goal is to highlight how rural regions have responded to the crisis to see if some rural regions were more resilient to the crisis than others. If so, the research will look at the possible factors that lead to resilience among rural regions.