Abstract: This paper takes 114towns in Xuzhou City as empirical units, classifies the rural development types in this city by analyzing its industrial structure, i.e. agriculture-dominated rural development type, industry-dominated rural development type, balanced rural development type, and rural development type focusing on business, tourism and providing services. Then, an indicator system was established to assess the rurality index (RI) of different rural development types in Xuzhou City. The results showed:53.50% of the total territory of Xuzhou City belongs to balanced rural development type, and 15.80%, 16.70% and 14.00% of the total area is respectively shared by agriculture-dominated rural development type, industry-dominated rural development type, and rural development type focusing on business, tourism and providing services. The agriculture-dominated rural development type shows a strong rurality (RI>0.55) and a moderate rurality (0.40