From the aspect of sustainability small settlements (to 1999 inhabitants) form a specific group of settlements in Slovakia. The situation is complicated by the fact, that these settlements form cca 85 % of all settlements in Slovakia and live there cca 30 % of population. In the socialist era these settlements were marginalized. The article gives an analysis of conditions, developmental trends and risks of their sustainability at the beginning of the 21st century. It evaluates the strong and weak points, developmental trends and risks of their sustainable development under the conditions of the accession process of the Slovak Republic to European Union and going on globalization forming the conditions for new dominant tendencies in settlement development. In this process also the culture of settlement has been changed, the revalorization of rural land, landscape and rural settlements is realized. The variety of the forms of settlements and settlement culture as mutual conditioning of biodiversity and sociodiversity of settlement forms could ensure the conditions of sustainability of small villages in Slovakia.