The Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics is a standard coding system created by the European Union (EU) to classify administrative areas for statistical purposes. Introduction Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics (; NUTS) is a geocode standard for referencing the administrative divisions of countries for statistical purposes. The standard, adopted in 2003, is developed and regulated by the European Union (EU), and thus covers only the EU member states in detail. The Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics is instrumental in the European Union's Structural Funds and Cohesion Fund delivery mechanisms and for locating the area where goods and services subject to European public procurement legislation are to be delivered.

For each EU member country, a hierarchy of three NUTS levels is established by Eurostat in agreement with each member state; 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, as abbreviated in the European Union's Interinstitutional Style Guide. 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. Below the three NUTS levels are local administrative units (LAUs). A similar statistical system is defined for the candidate countries and members of the European Free Trade Association, but they are not part of NUTS governed by the regulations.

The current NUTS classification, dated 21 November 2016 and effective from 1 January 2018 (now updated to current members ), lists 92 regions at NUTS 1, 244 regions at NUTS 2, 1215 regions at NUTS 3 level, and 99,387 local administrative units (LAUs).

National structures Not all countries have every level of division, depending on their size. For example, Luxembourg and Cyprus only have local administrative units (LAUs); the three NUTS divisions each correspond to the entire country itself.

Member states Countries NUTS 1 NUTS 2 NUTS 3 Local administrative units (LAU) Member State 27 92 240 1,164 92,054 Austria AT Groups of states 3 States 9 Groups of districts 35 Municipalities () 2,093 Belgium BE Regions 3 Provinces (+ Brussels) 11 Arrondissements (Verviers split into two) 44 Municipalities ( / ) 581 Bulgaria BG — 1 Planning regions 4 Oblasts 28 Municipalities (, ) 265 Croatia HR — 1 Regions 4 Counties () + Zagreb 21 Municipalities () 556 Cyprus CY — 1 — 1 — 1 Municipalities, communities (, ) 538 Czech Republic CZ — 1 Statistical areas 8 Administrative regions () 14 Municipalities () 6,258 Denmark DK — 1 Regions () 5 Provinces () 11 Municipalities () and 1 unincorporated area 99 Estonia EE — 1 — 1 Groups of counties 5 Municipalities () 79 Finland FI Mainland Finland, Åland 2 Large areas ( / ) 5 Regions ( / ) 19 Municipalities ( / ) 309 France FR Regions + DOM 14 Former regions (1982–2015) + DOM 27 Departments + DOM 101 Communes 34,936 Germany DE States () 16 Inconsistent, some whole States (), some Government regions () (or equivalent, or dissolved) 38 Districts () 401 Municipalities () 10,957 Greece EL Groups of development regions 4 Regions 13 Prefectures 52 Municipal districts/Community districts(, ) 6,142 Hungary HU Statistical large regions () 3 Planning and statistical regions () 8 Counties () + Budapest 20 Settlements () 3,155 Ireland IE — 1 Regions 3 Regional Authority Regions 8 Local electoral areas 166 Italy IT Groups of regions 5 Regions (Trentino-Alto Adige split into two) 21 Provinces Metropolitan Cities 110 Municipalities () 7,896 Latvia LV — 1 — 1 Statistical regions 5 Municipalities, state cities () 43 Lithuania LT — 1 Regions 2 Counties 10 Municipalities () 60 Luxembourg LU — 1 — 1 — 1 Communes (, , ) 100 Malta MT — 1 — 1 Islands 2 Local councils () 68 Netherlands NL Groups of provinces 4 Provinces 12 COROP regions 40 Municipalities () 342 Poland PL Macroregions () 7 Voivodeships + Warsaw metro 17 Subregions () 74 Municipalities () 2,477 Portugal PT Continent + Azores + Madeira 3 Statistical regions + autonomous regions 9 Groups of municipalities 26 Municipalities () 3,092 Romania RO Macroregions 4 Regions 8 Counties + Bucharest 42 Communes + Municipalities + Cities () 3,181 Slovakia SK — 1 Oblasts 4 Regions () 8 Municipalities () 2,927 Slovenia SI — 1 Macroregions 2 Statistical regions 12 Municipalities () 212 Spain ES Groups of autonomous communities 7 17 Autonomous communities and 2 autonomous cities 19 Provinces + Islands + Ceuta and Melilla 59 Municipalities () 8,132 Sweden SE Regions () 3 National Areas () 8 Counties () 21 Municipalities () 290

Candidate countries and potential candidates Country NUTS 1 NUTS 2 NUTS 3 LAU Countries 10 28 66 272 3,094 Albania AL — 1 Statistical regions () 3 Counties () 12 Municipalities () 61 Bosnia and Herzegovina BA—1 Administrative statistical territorial unit3Not yet agreed* Georgia GENot yet agreed* Kosovo XK—1—1 Regions (; , )7 Municipalities (; , )38 Moldova MDNot yet agreed* Montenegro ME — 1 — 1 — 1 Settlements (, ) — North Macedonia MK — 1 — 1 Statistical regions (, ) 8 Municipalities (, ) 80 Serbia RS Groups of regions (, ) 2 Regions (, ) 4 Districts (, ) 25 Municipalities (, ) 168 Turkey TR Regions () 12 Sub-regions () 26 Provinces () 81 Districts () 973 Ukraine UA Macroregions (, ) 9 Regions (, ) 27 Districts (, ) 138 Hromadas () 1774 * Georgia and Moldova have not been updated yet to Eurostat at any NUTS level; Bosnia and Herzegovina has been updated up to NUTS2 level, however the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina intends to use cantons as NUTS3 and the Republika Srpska its statistical regions.

EFTA countries Country NUTS 2 NUTS 3 LAU 4 4 13 46 2,562 Switzerland CH — 1 Regions (; ; ) 7 Cantons (; ; ) 26 Municipalities (; ; ) 2131 Iceland IS — 1 — 1 Statistical areas () 2 Municipalities () 63 Liechtenstein LI — 1 — 1 — 1 Municipalities () 11 Norway NO — 1 Regions () 5 Counties () 17 Municipalities () 357

Former EU member state

Country NUTS 1 NUTS 2 NUTS 3 LAU UK Regions of England 9 Sub-Regions: groups of counties individual counties groups of London boroughs 30 Upper tier authorities and groups of unitary authorities and districts 93 Districts or unitary authorities 326 Wales 1 Groups of Principal areas 2 Groups of Principal areas 12 Principal areas 22 Scotland 1 Groups of Council and/or Island Areas 4 Groups of Council Areas or Islands Areas 23 Council areas, subdivided by LEC where applicable 41 Northern Ireland 1 — 1 Groups of districts 5 Districts 11

Maps

Establishment NUTS regions are generally based on existing national administrative subdivisions. In countries where only one or two regional subdivisions exist, or where the population of existing subdivisions is too small or too large, 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). In countries with small populations, where the entire country would be placed on the NUTS 2 or even NUTS 3 level (ex. Luxembourg, Cyprus), the regions at levels 1, 2 and 3 are identical to each other (and also to the entire country), but are coded with the appropriate length codes levels 1, 2 and 3.

The NUTS system favors existing administrative units, with one or more assigned to each NUTS level. Specific guidelines are based in population, leaving little or no role for other types of variables such as area, distance, topography, levels of jurisdiction or history, which can only be considered in (unspecified) types of special cases.Regions and cities. Overview eurostat. Retrieved 31 December 2022 From the NUTS Regulation, the average population size of the regions in the respective level shall lie within the following thresholds:https://www.cepal.org/sites/default/files/presentations/seminario_gsgf_principio-3_eurostat_nuts.pdf page=9

+ 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 from these population marks exist for particular geographical, socio-economic, historical, cultural or environmental circumstances, especially for islands and outermost regions.

Examples IT: Italy ITC: Northwest Italy ITC1: Piedmont ITC11: Metropolitan City of Turin

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 metropolitan areas (LUZ) in the European Union List of the largest urban areas of the European Union List of European regions by GDP Regions of the European Union International Territorial Level, the post-Brexit equivalent for NUTS in the United Kingdom

Notes

References

External links

Eurostat portal – NUTS – Nomenclature of territorial units for statistics – Overview History of NUTS – Changes between versions NUTS maps Statistical regions outside the EU Correspondence between the NUTS levels and the national structures (EU) Correspondence between the NUTS levels and the national structures (non-EU) List of current NUTS codes at SIMAP (EU procurement portal) NUTS regions for web maps in JSON format

Administrative Divisions of Countries ("Statoids")