This monograph is part of a series of reports that explain how techniques of spatial analysis can be used to investigate poverty and environment links worldwide. It combines rural population distribution data contained in the global rural population database for the year 2000 with methods and results of the "Global agro-ecological assessment for agriculture in the 21st century," in order to estimate the distribution of the world's rural population by agricultural suitability class, land-use category and type of farming system.