Abstract
Financial inclusion is a means to make full use of financial services, which stimulates the introduction of innovation, mobilization of savings and investment support, and thus contributes to the economic development of territories. The purpose of the study is to substantiate scientific and practical approaches to determining the role and place of financial inclusion in sustainable development of rural areas. The state of financial inclusion in rural areas has been assessed having applied the statistical-economic and calculation-constructive methods. The abstract-logical method made it possible to prove the positive impact of financial inclusion on the sustainable development of rural areas and to offer proposals for its further advancement. It has been argued that the key tasks of financial inclusion in the context of sustainable development of rural areas are financial education, access to financial services, and protection of the rights of consumers of financial services.