Urban settlements represent an essential factor in meeting sustainable development goals. However, at the local level, the role of a town as the concentration point of local services and the driver of local development is not as obvious as it might derive from its status. Due to their vulnerable structure, the potential of small towns to show adequate performance for the sake of sustainability can be severely weakened. Although, rural areas in Europe perform better from the viewpoint of sustainability, rural Romania has witnessed, in fact, a degradation of living standards, jeopardizing all three pillars of sustainability. In our paper, we identify, using multi-criteria statistical analysis and hierarchical agglomerative clustering, three types of rural towns, to which the fourth type, suburbs, is added. We, then discuss the development possibilities of those towns, supplying four measures likely to give good results in promoting their sustainable development. We, also, recommend tailoring rural, regional and sustainable development policies to each identified type of rural towns, in order for policy makers and executive officials to make them perform better.