The peri-urban area is the place that witnessing the transformation of economic structure from agricultural to non-agricultural economy, an intermediary environment for the interaction between rural and urban culture. Therefore, studying the development of peri-urban areas can contribute significantly to the process of establising visions and strategies for the city development. The approach of social-economical surveys for planning and developing peri-urban areas in Vietnam plays a very important role in identifying the current situation, assessing the impacts of urbanization on the economic, cultural and social life in the peripheries so that the spatial problem can be solved in effective and practical way. The article gave general concepts and basic characteristics of peri-urban areas in terms of socio-economic and cultural aspects. Besides, the article identified the socio-economic factors under the impact of the urbanization process in the peri urban areas and introduced the basic principles when making survey plan for that specific areas. These are very important principles so that researchers can establish a framework and detail shedule for their surveys. Keywords: social – economical survey method, peri-urban area, peri-urbanization, social – economical impacts, Vietnam