Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics
![]() | This article needs to be updated.(February 2015) |
The Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics or Nomenclature of Units for Territorial Statistics (NUTS; French: Nomenclature des unités territoriales statistiques) is a geocode standard for referencing the subdivisions of countries for statistical purposes.[1][2][3][4][5][6] The standard is developed and regulated by the European Union, and thus only covers the member states of the EU in detail. The Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics is instrumental in the European Union's Structural Fund delivery mechanisms.
For each EU member country, a hierarchy of three NUTS levels is established by Eurostat; the subdivisions in some levels do not necessarily correspond to administrative divisions within the country. A NUTS code begins with a two-letter code referencing the country, which is identical to the ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 code (except UK instead of GB for the United Kingdom and EL instead of GR for Greece). The subdivision of the country is then referred to with one number. A second or third subdivision level is referred to with another number each. Each numbering starts with 1, as 0 is used for the upper level. Where the subdivision has more than nine entities, capital letters are used to continue the numbering. A similar statistical system is defined for the candidate countries and members of the European Free Trade Association, but they are not technically part of NUTS governed by the regulations.
The current NUTS classification, valid from 1 January 2015, lists 98 regions at NUTS 1, 276 regions at NUTS 2 and 1342 regions at NUTS 3 level.[7]
In addition to the full three levels for the European Union countries, all other countries have a NUTS code with a two-letter code for a continent and two numbers for the country, and for the USA, Canada and Australia the states, provinces, and territories are numbered separately. There are some anomalies: for example, Gibraltar is listed as being outside the EU with the code EO21; while French Guiana is listed twice, once in France as FR930 and once in South America as AS13. NUTS is thus in some extent similar to the ISO 3166-2 standard, as well as the FIPS 10-4 standard of the United States.
Levels
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d2/NUTS_1_regions_EU-27.svg/300px-NUTS_1_regions_EU-27.svg.png)
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/6b/NUTS_2_regions_EU-27.svg/300px-NUTS_2_regions_EU-27.svg.png)
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/9f/NUTS_3_regions_EU-27.svg/300px-NUTS_3_regions_EU-27.svg.png)
There are three levels of NUTS defined, with two levels of local administrative units (LAUs) below. These were called NUTS levels 4 and 5 until July 2003, but were officially abolished by regulation, although they are sometimes still described as such. Note that not all countries have every level of division, depending on their size. One of the most extreme cases is Luxembourg, which has only LAUs; the three NUTS divisions each correspond to the entire country itself.
Countries | NUTS 1 | NUTS 2 | NUTS 3 | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
EU members | 28 | 98 | 273 | 1324 | |||
Austria | AT | Groups of states | 3 | States | 9 | Groups of districts | 35 |
Belgium | BE | Regions | 3 | Provinces (+ Brussels) | 11 | Arrondissements (Verviers split into two) | 44 |
Bulgaria | BG | Regions | 2 | Planning regions | 6 | Oblasts | 28 |
Cyprus | CY | — | 1 | — | 1 | — | 1 |
Czech Republic | CZ | — | 1 | Territorial regions (+ Prague) | 8 | Administrative regions | 14 |
Germany | DE | States (Bundesland) | 16 | Government regions (Regierungbezirk) (or equivalent) | 39 | Districts (Kreis) | 429 |
Denmark | DK | — | 1 | Regions (Regioner) | 5 | Provinces (Landsdele) | 11 |
Estonia | EE | — | 1 | — | 1 | Groups of counties | 5 |
Spain | ES | Groups of autonomous communities | 7 | 17 Autonomous communities and 2 autonomous cities | 19 | Provinces + Islands + Ceuta and Melilla | 59 |
Finland | FI | Mainland Finland, Åland | 2 | Large areas | 5 | Regions | 20 |
France | FR | Z.E.A.T. + DOM | 9 | Regions + DOM | 27 | Departments + DOM | 101 |
Greece | EL (GR) | Groups of development regions | 4 | Regions | 13 | Prefectures | 51 |
Hungary | HU | Statistical large regions (statisztikai nagyrégiók) | 3 | Planning and statistical regions (tervezési-statisztikai régió) | 7 | Counties (megye) + Budapest | 20 |
Croatia | HR | — | 1 | Regions | 2 | Counties | 21 |
Ireland | IE | — | 1 | Regional Assemblies | 2 | Regional Authorities | 8 |
Italy | IT | Groups of regions | 5 | Regions (Trentino-Alto Adige split into two) | 21 | Provinces | 110 |
Lithuania | LT | — | 1 | — | 1 | Counties | 10 |
Luxembourg | LU | — | 1 | — | 1 | — | 1 |
Latvia | LV | — | 1 | — | 1 | Statistical regions | 6 |
Malta | MT | — | 1 | — | 1 | Islands | 2 |
Netherlands | NL | Groups of provinces | 4 | Provinces | 12 | COROP regions | 40 |
Poland | PL | Regions | 6 | Voivodeships | 16 | Subregions | 66 |
Portugal | PT | Continent + Azores + Madeira | 3 | Coordination and development regions + autonomous regions | 7 | Groups of municipalities | 30 |
Romania | RO | Macroregions | 4 | Regions | 8 | Counties + Bucharest | 42 |
Sweden | SE | Regions | 3 | National areas | 8 | Counties | 21 |
Slovenia | SI | — | 1 | Macroregions | 2 | Statistical regions | 12 |
Slovakia | SK | — | 1 | Oblasts | 4 | Regions | 8 |
United Kingdom | UK | Regions of England | 9 | Counties (some grouped); groups of districts in Greater London | 30 | Upper tier authorities and groups of unitary authorities and districts | 93 |
Wales | 1 | Groups of Principal Areas | 2 | Groups of Principal Areas | 12 | ||
Scotland | 1 | Groups of Council and/or Island Areas | 4 | Groups of Council Areas or Islands Areas | 23 | ||
Northern Ireland | 1 | — | 1 | Groups of districts | 5 | ||
Candidate countries | 6 | 15 | 37 | 133 | |||
Albania | AL | — | 1 | Regions (non-administrative) | 3 | Counties | 12 |
Iceland | IS | — | 1 | — | 1 | Capital Region / Rest of country | 2 |
Macedonia | MK | — | 1 | — | 1 | Statistical regions | 8 |
Montenegro | ME | — | 1 | — | 1 | — | 1 |
Serbia | RS | Groups of regions | 2 | Regions | 5 | Districts | 29 |
Turkey | TR | Regions | 12 | Sub-regions | 26 | Provinces | 81 |
EFTA countries | 3 | 3 | 15 | 46 | |||
Switzerland | CH | — | 1 | Regions | 7 | Cantons | 26 |
Liechtenstein | LI | — | 1 | — | 1 | — | 1 |
Norway | NO | — | 1 | Regions | 7 | Counties | 19 |
Level structure
NUTS 1 | NUTS 2 | NUTS 3 |
---|---|---|
n/a | Governor | Mayor |
Group of NUTS 2 | Region/Province/State/Prefecture (including: autonomous type) |
Parish/Canton/Oblast City and Regency/County/Municipality |
Establishment
The NUTS-region are based on the existing national administrative subdivisions. In countries where only one or two regional subdivisions exist, or where the size of existing subdivisions is too small, a second and/or third level is created. This may be on the first level (ex. France, Italy, Greece, and Spain), on the second (ex. Germany) and/or third level (ex. Belgium).[8] In smaller countries, where the entire country would be placed on the NUTS 2 or even NUTS 3 level (ex. Luxembourg, Cyprus), levels 1, 2 and/or 3 are identical to the level above and/or to the entire country.
The NUTS system favors existing administrative units, with one or more assigned to each NUTS level.
From the NUTS Regulation, the average population size of the regions in the respective level shall lie within the following thresholds:
Level | Minimum | Maximum |
---|---|---|
NUTS 1 | 3 million | 7 million |
NUTS 2 | 800,000 | 3 million |
NUTS 3 | 150,000 | 800,000 |
For non-administrative units, deviations exist for particular geographical, socio-economic, historical, cultural or environmental circumstances, especially for islands and outermost regions.
Examples
- DE: Germany
- DE7: Hessen – The Bundesland as the top level subdivision of Germany
- DE71: Darmstadt region – Regierungsbezirk as second level
- DE71E: Wetteraukreis – Kreis as the third level
- DE71: Darmstadt region – Regierungsbezirk as second level
- DE7: Hessen – The Bundesland as the top level subdivision of Germany
- AA: Asia
- AA25: Thailand
- US16: Kansas
See also
- ISO 3166
- ISO 3166-1
- ISO 3166-2
- List of FIPS region codes
- List of metropolitan areas in Europe by population
- List of European regions by GDP
- Local administrative unit
- Regions of the European Union
References
- ^ "NUTS - Nomenclature of territorial units for statistics". Ec.europa.eu. Retrieved 24 March 2013.
- ^ European Commission wiki Archived 19 February 2010 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "Regulation (EC) No 176/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 February 2008". Eur-lex.europa.eu. Retrieved 24 March 2013.
- ^ "Regulation (EC) No 1888/2005 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 October 2005". Eur-lex.europa.eu. Retrieved 24 March 2013.
- ^ "Commission Regulation (EC) No 105/2007 of 1 February 2007". Eur-lex.europa.eu. Retrieved 24 March 2013.
- ^ "Regulation (EC) No 1059/2003 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 May 2003". Eur-lex.europa.eu. Retrieved 24 March 2013.
- ^ Official Eurostat website: NUTS Overview.
- ^ "Europa – Eurostat – Regions – Basic principles of the NUTS". Ec.europa.eu. Retrieved 24 March 2013.
External links
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/4a/Commons-logo.svg/30px-Commons-logo.svg.png)