NUTS and LAU
 Feature: NUTS and LAU
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| Regions for statistical purposes in the European Union |
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Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics (NUTS) and Local Administrative Units (LAU) are standards for territorial units developed by European Union for statistical purposes. It defines hierarchical structure of territories with 4 levels (NUTS1, NUTS2, NUTS3, and LAU).
Please help to gather information about NUTS and LAU hierarchies relevant for OSM mappers on this page.
Introduction to NUTS and LAU
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, but are described as "socio-economic regions" and used for European statistics.
A NUTS code begins with a two-letter code referencing the country, which is identical to the ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 code (except 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. In case 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.
- NUTS level 0 - the entire EU territory of a member state. Reference examples - France has NUTS0 code FR, Germany has code DE.
- NUTS level 1 - large regions which have approximate population 3-7 millions. Bigger states are separated to more NUTS1 regions. Reference examples - Luxembourg has NUTS1 code LU0, German state Hessen has code DE7, Scotland has code UKM.
- NUTS level 2 - many European financial institutions operate on this level which have approximate population 0.8-3 millions. Some smaller state are only one NUTS2 region Reference examples - Luxembourg is has NUTS2 code LU00, Central Bohemian Region has code CZ020.
- NUTS level 3 - local administration often operates at this level which have approximate population 150-800 thousand. Reference example: Wetteraukreis – Kreis has NUTS3 code DE71E.
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; all NUTS divisions correspond to the entire country itself. It is however advisable to create separate relation for each of these level even though the territory is the same. Not only the code can be different, but also the name of region depending on what level of nomenclature we speak. 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.
Regions belonging to more than one NUTS level
There are several territories which belong to more NUTS levels, e.g. they have more NUTS reference numbers, for example
- NUTS 1, 2 and 3: Berlin
Berlin, Hamburg Hamburg, Luxembourg Luxembourg - NUTS 1 and 2: Thuringia Thuringia, North Macedonia North Macedonia
- NUTS 2 and 3: Utrecht Utrecht, Region of Bratislava Region of Bratislava
Overpass queries to find all of them:
Outside the EU
Outside the EU, Eurostat extends the NUTS system to other EFTA countries and candidate countries (in collaboration with these countries). Because these are outside the legal scope of NUTS, these are referred to as Statistical Regions (SR) instead of NUTS regions. By design, SR codes can be used interchangeably with NUTS codes. Just like NUTS, SR has three levels. SR codes can be tagged in the same way as NUTS codes.
Note that there are no NUTS and LAU codes for Overseas Countries and Territories (OCT), because these are not part of EU territory. Contrary to OCT, Outermost Regions (OR) are part of the EU and hence also included in NUTS, e.g. NUTS1 region FRY bundles all OR territories of France.
Historical notes
- Originally, there was NUTS4 that was later replaced by LAU1. LAU1 was removed in 2017.
- Originally, there was NUTS5 that was later replaced by LAU2. Since the removal of LAU1 in 2017, LAU2 is simply known as LAU. Although the current LAU was thus derived from NUTS5, the structure of codes may differ. For example, the NUTS5 code for Beroun used to be CZ0202531057 (or CZ0202 531057) but the LAU code is only 531057.
- After leaving the European Union, the United Kingdom changed their NUTS codes into International Territorial Level (ITL) codes, replacing the
UKprefix withTLin all codes.
Tagging
There is currently no standardized tagging schemes, but the de facto standard is to have separate relation for each NUTS level with all or some of these keys:
| Key | Value example | Notes |
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type
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boundary
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(required) denotes that the relation is a boundary=* relation.
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boundary
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administrative
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(required if this matches a national administrative subdivision) denotes that the relation is a administrative relation. |
statistical
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(recommended) otherwise | |
admin_level
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6
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(required if this matches a national administrative subdivision) see admin_level=*.
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name
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Ústecký kraj | (required) name of the region |
ref:nuts
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CZ042 | (recommended if this is a NUTS region) the NUTS0/NUTS1/NUTS2/NUTS3 reference number
Since several regions have more than one NUTS ref number, it may pose a question which one should be used here. |
ref:nuts:0 orref:nuts:1 orref:nuts:2 orref:nuts:3
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CZ042 | (required if this is a NUTS region) the same as ref:nuts, but explicitly mentioning the level to which region belongs.
If a region has more NUTS reference numbers, each of them can be used on OSM with this scheme while it is not the case with |
ref:lau
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531057 | (required if this is a LAU region) the LAU reference number.
Note that unlike NUTS codes, LAU codes do not include a country code prefix. |
ref:lau:1 andref:lau:2
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531057 | (deprecated) These are no longer relevant, since the two-level LAU1 and LAU2 structure has ended in 2017. |
is_in:country
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Česko | (deprecated) country in which the region belongs. Another is_in=* keys can be used as well.
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is_in:nuts
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CZ0723 | (deprecated) smallest NUTS region to which the region belongs (NUTS3 for LAU regions, NUTS2 for NUTS3, etc ...). Due to the hierarchical way with which the NUTS ref numbers are constructed, this can be infered directly from the NUTS ref of the current region. |
is_in:nuts:0is_in:nuts:1is_in:nuts:2is_in:nuts:3
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CZ0723 | (deprecated) NUTS-x region to which the region belongs. |
Tagging details per country
| Country | NUTS1 | NUTS2 | NUTS3 | LAU |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 Belgium
The NUTS code prefix is |
Within the Flemish and Walloon Regions: The Brussels-Capital Region is the same as NUTS1. |
The LAU code is the value of | ||
 Czechia[1]
The NUTS code prefix is |
Same as country |
The LAU code is the last six digits of | ||
 Luxembourg
The NUTS code prefix is |
Same as country | Same as country | Same as country | |
 Netherlands (European part)
The NUTS code prefix is |
Not mapped yet |
The LAU code is GM plus the value of |
- ↑ For tagging guidelines, see NUTS and LAU/Czechia.
- ↑ Luxembourg nationally still maintains both LAU1 (
ref:lau1=*on cantons) and LAU2 (ref:lau2=*on municipalities).
NUTS mapping status per country
- ↑ Denmark in NUTS is defined as the territory of the Kingdom of Denmark, except for the Faroe Islands and Greenland.
- ↑ Greece NUTS code
ELdiffers from its ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 codeGR. - ↑ France in NUTS is defined as the territory of the French Republic, except for its overseas countries and territories (New Caledonia, French Polynesia, the French Southern and Antarctic Territories, Wallis and Futuna, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, and Saint Barthélemy, per Annex II to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union) and its other non-European territories that are not outermost regions (Clipperton Island, per paragraphs 1 and 3 of Article 355 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, per paragraph 2 of Article 52 of the Treaty on European Union).
- ↑ Cyprus in NUTS is defined as the territory of the Republic of Cyprus.
- ↑ Netherlands in NUTS is defined as the territory of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, except for its overseas countries and territories (Aruba, Bonaire, Curaçao, Saba, Sint Eustatius, and Sint Maarten, per Annex II to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union).
- ↑ United Kingdom NUTS code
UKdiffers from its ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 codeGB. - ↑ United Kingdom in NUTS is defined as the territory of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
External links
Consolidated legal texts
The following EU regulations define the NUTS regions:
- Regulation (EC) No 1059/2003 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 May 2003 on the establishment of a common classification of territorial units for statistics (NUTS)
- Lists all NUTS regions in the Annex. Article 2 sub 1 defines these as divisions of the economic territory of the Member States.
- Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2021/1947 of 10 November 2021 on the definition of the geographic territory of Member States for the purposes of Regulation (EU) 2019/516 of the European Parliament and of the Council on the harmonisation of gross national income at market prices (GNI Regulation) and repealing Commission Decision 91/450/EEC, Euratom and Commission Regulation (EC) No 109/2005
- Defines the geographic territory of each Member State and links the definition of economic territory. This effectively defines NUTS level 0.
- Regulation (EU) No 549/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 21 May 2013 on the European system of national and regional accounts in the European Union
- Provides the definition of economic territory referred to above.
- Treaty on European Union and Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union
- Provides the rationale in paragraph 2 of Article 52 of the Treaty on European Union and paragraphs 1 and 3 of Article 355 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union for Clipperton Island being outside the territorial scope of both these foundational EU treaties[1] and therefore implicitly outside the geographic territory of the French Republic.
Other sources
- Information website: ec.europa.eu/eurostat/en/web/nuts NUTS overview, Eurostat, European Commission (data in various formats, maps, explanations, etc.)
- Dataset: data.europa.eu/data/datasets/estat-nuts-classification
- Publication (PDF): Statistical regions in the European Union and partner countries. NUTS and statistical regions 2021 : 2022 edition