Nomenclature des unités territoriales statistiques (NUTS)

The NUTS classification (Nomenclature des unités territoriales statistiques or Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics) is a spatial classification system that was introduced by Eurostat over 30 years ago. NUTS currently contains three levels or regions (Eurostat 2024).
The aim of NUTS is to integrate the individual spatial administrative units of the EU member states into a uniform classification and thus lead to harmonisation in international statistics. It serves the purpose of cross-border statistical comparability in Europe (Eurostat 2024).

Origin/Creator:	Eurostat
Method/Structure:	As a three-level hierarchical system, NUTS is closely orientated to the respective national administrative units of the EU member states. Each member state is divided into NUTS 1 regions, which in turn are divided into NUTS 2 regions and finally into NUTS 3 regions (Federal Statistical Office 2024). The individual NUTS regions are structured according to size.
Development/implementation for Germany:	Developed by Eurostat, the NUTS classification has been used in the EU member states since 1988 (Eurostat 2024). The current NUTS 2024 has been valid since 1 January 2024 (Eurostat 2024). The NUTS 1 regions generally contain 3 to 7 million inhabitants. In Germany, these are the 16 federal states. The NUTS 2 regions comprise between 800,000 and 3 million inhabitants and generally correspond to the administrative districts. Exceptions are the city states of Berlin, Hamburg and Bremen, as well as the territorial states of Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Saarland, Saxony-Anhalt, Schleswig-Holstein and Thuringia, which are the relevant administrative regions in both NUTS-1 and NUTS-2. The NUTS-3 regions contain between 150,000 and 800,000 inhabitants. In Germany, they refer to the districts and independent cities (Eurostat 2024).

Related classifications:

Federal states

Keywords

territorial unit, federal states, administrative districts, districts, Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics, Nomenclature des unités territoriales statistiques, Eurostat, NUTS

Nomenclature des unités territoriales statistiques (NUTS)

Fundamental literature: Eurostat (2022): Statistical regions in the European Union and partner countries NUTS and statistical regions 2021 - re-edition 2022, Stand: 11.04.2024.

Eurostat (2024): NUTS - Systematik der Gebietseinheiten für die Statistik. Übersicht.
https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/nuts/overview, Stand: 11.04.2024

Federal Statistical Office (2024): NUTS-Klassifikation.
https://www.destatis.de/Europa/DE/MethodenMetadaten/Klassifikationen/
UebersichtKlassifikationen_NUTS.html, Stand: 11.04.2024