Cities and towns are the socioeconomic growth poles. The purpose of this article is to evaluate socioeconomic development tendencies of major cities and towns (with more than 10 000 inhabitants) in Latvia. To illustrate development in a focused way, three main indicators are used: income of inhabitants, unemployment level and density of inhabitants. Separate development level and rate indexes are elaborated for each of indicators, as well as an aggregated indicator for the overall socioeconomic development rate and level. Indexes are combined in development level-rate matrix, where x axis represents development level and y axis – development rate. Horizontal axis crosses vertical axis at 0,5 which is the average possible value of development level and rate index. It enables to place cities and towns in four quadrants, as follows: leaders, up-and-comers, losing ground and laggards. The matrix also graphically represents the number of inhabitants in each city and town. The evaluation shows significant regional development disparities. Leader positions are taken by cities which are located in 70 km radius around the capital city Riga, as well as such cities and towns as Valmiera, Dobele, Cesis and Saldus. Special attention should be paid to cities and towns with low development level, but high development rate (Jekabpils, Liepaja, Daugavpils and Kraslava), as well as cities and towns with low development rate – Kuldiga that also has a low development level and Ventspils that has high development level, but the lowest development rate. The analysis performed approves that development level-rate matrix is a useful instrument for the evaluation of socioeconomic development of cities and towns. Taking into account the results of analysis in perspective matrix could be complemented with 3th dimension – proximity to Riga.