Rural areas have their own specific socio-economic and demographic challenges. They are characterized by an increasingly aging population, depopulation, limited infrastructure and health services, increasing domestic crime, etc. The development aims to analyze the influence of local factors on the viability of rural areas. For the fulfillment of the set goal, an answer to the scientific research question is sought: What is the influence of local factors on demographic changes and the share of the population of over working age in rural areas in Bulgaria, based on the censuses in 2010 and 2020? Approved is the Territorial Partition Shift Analysis (TSSA), which is a modified model of the popular Partition Shift Analysis (SSA). It is concluded that the territorial impact in rural areas has a limited or moderate effect on the considered indicators. Only in isolated cases is the very strong or unfavorable impact of local factors on the population in general and in particular on the population over working age considered. 

viability, influence of local factors, rural areas, population