Currently, both rural development and urban development in China are experiencing a transition period. the transformation of a traditional agricultural society into a modern industrial and urban society, and the economy is changing from a traditional planned economy to a modern market system. As a result, regional development factors reintegration and followed industrial restructuring have changed the rural areas in eastern coastal China deeply. Different rural development types were shaped basing on a carrier, which is composed of different industries. Accordingly, this paper defines four rural development types, i.e. agriculture-dominated rural development type, industry-dominated rural development type, balanced rural development type, and rural development type focusing on business, tourism and providing services, and classifies the rural development types in eastern coastal China. Then, an indicator system was established to assess the rurality index (RI) of different rural development types in eastern coastal China. The results showed: (1) Relying on the advantages of location and national lean policies, 57.6% of the total territory of eastern coastal China belongs to balanced rural development type, and 18.64%, 11.99% and 11.75% of the total area is shared by agriculture-dominated rural development type, industry-dominated rural development type, and rural development type focusing on business, tourism and providing services, respectively; (2) 59.1% of the agriculture-dominated rural development type shows a strong rurality (RI > 0.5); (3) In the industry-dominated rural development type, the area with a weak rurality (RI < 0.4) and a moderate rurality (0.4 < RI < 0.5) takes up 33.4% and 42.8%, respectively; (4) In the rural development type focusing on business, tourism and providing services, the area with weak, strong and moderate rurality shares 42.7%, 27.3% and 30.0% of the total, respectively; (5) Almost half (45.8%) of the balanced rural development type with a moderate rurality, 17.2% of this type with a weak rurality, and 37% with a strong rurality. In some cases, the big difference of rurality index value among the same development types is due to the development of multi-functionality of current countryside and place-based rural development mode under globalization and socio-economic restructuring. Rural development depends on the change of its influencing factors. So, the rural development types classified in this paper can not always keep the same situation, at least the quantitative change occurs momently.