Rural municipalities show considerable heterogeneity in relation to their development potential, so the proper characterization of their socioeconomic status is a basic requirement in the design of rural development policies. This working paper shows, in the first place, how this task can be performed using nonparametric methods and, in particular, Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA).

Secondly, it is found that the combination of a DEA-based approach and a multicriteria approach improves results by increasing the discriminatory power of the classic DEA model, and by generating common weights of socioeconomic variables for individual municipalities. The application of both methodological approaches has been illustrated with data from a sample of 48 municipalities in the Leader zone of the Autonomous Region of Valencia.