The current demographic developments amount to new challenges for municipalities. Both an ageing and a shrinking population are producing spatial impacts, which for structural reasons are harder to deal with in rural than in urban contexts. For one, infrastructures and facilities quickly reach profitability limits when they are subjected to shrinking processes, for another, covering longer distances between residential locations and facilities for daily needs presents itself as a challenge for an older population that is not as (auto)mobile as it used to be. Furthermore the needs of an ageing population tend to shift. Fewer offers, larger distances and different demand patterns have repeatedly kindled the discussion on the question of an adequate quality of life in rural areas. Given the vagueness of the term “adequate quality of life” makes working with it on a practical level rather difficult. In this paper we will first elaborate on the term and then introduce the empirical study “Der Selfkant”. This research project is located in a rural part of North Rhine-Westphalia where citizens participated in a survey that assessed the quality of life in their residential locations.