'Country' land, close enough to a big town, city or metropolis to benefit from it economically, but not so close as to benefit from town defenses. It is mainly composed of agricultural settlements that send food and other resources into the local town. There might be a small market town, with a few guards, or a Local Lord who provides some basic defense, and it might reach all the way to a frontier castle - but most residents are low-level NPC classes living the rural life, and looking after themselves.

Most NPCs fall into the 3gp - 10gp per month standard of living Categories, many will be farm laborers, who supplement their income by hunting and foraging, a few more will have a single useful skill point (In a Craft or Professional skill) and might have small holdings, or market gardens of their own. Others might be in skilled workers cottages, perhaps making a living as fisherfolk, basket weavers, or brewers. You can get an idea of their livings standards Here

Different parts of the hinterland come with different levels of risk. If you are close to a large town or city that depends on its Suburban Hinterland for food, it will be get occasional patrols and retributive strikes against humanoids and bandits that damage its food supply, these regions tend to have the most investment and largest farms. On the other hand, the further away from civilization, towards the Edge of the hinterland, the more chance of attack and the greater the risk and consequently smaller settlements, in between is a Hinterland of small market towns and villages that depend on trade routes to link them together.

The settlers who live closest to the wilderness often do so for a reason. Perhaps they are hiding, disgusted with civilization, love nature, want peace and quiet, have a secret, or even all of the above. That means that settlements are smaller, standards of living are lower, but the residents need to be hardier and a bit more self-sufficient than those closest to town. Most of the settlements will be Thorps or Hamlets, with few economic opportunities, and those that do exist will do little more than break even, rather than generate a profit for an absentee landlord.

Living on the Edge

You will find these buildings all over the Hinterland, from making up the smallest settlements to providing homes for workers in villages and market towns.

Creel Cottages provide simple homes, based on a Common Room, for up to 5x farmworkers. One shedlike building provides cooking eating, living and storage space, in a connumal environment. Over time, assuming the residents can afford it, they can be developed to make more sophisticated homes.
Workers Cottages are a bit more sophisticated and provive a small home, with better facilities, a bit more privacy and a small garden. Based around the Logings from the PF downtime rules, a pair of Workers cottages can provide homes for 2x families of 5.
Simple Cottages are still kore sophisticated, and can house a family of ten. However, they can also provide slighly more comfortable and private accommodations for smaller families.
Market Gardens work for low level experts or some wellestablished Commoner Families. With a reasonably comfortable home, supported by a garden and minor livestock, they can make a good living. There is, of course, the opportunity to pick up casual work and supplement the income with Foraging, Hintiing and survival rolls.

Probably NPC classes that have got to L2 and have skills in a useful area. Most will be Experts, a few will be warriors, there might even be a character witha PC class. They have an 'Above Average' standard of living for their community - but they have to work for a living, and need to make some compromises.

It is unlikely that you will find these is settlments smaller than a village or market town.

A Crafter's Cottage is home to a crafter (or professional) who holds the local community together. It might be a blacksmith, a tannery, mill or some other rural craftsperson - it won't be a specialist crafter, nor will they be particularly skilled.