Archive:Urban-rural typology update
- Data from Month Year. Most recent data: Further Eurostat information, Main tables and Database.
The urban-rural typology classifies the NUTS-3 regions into three different categories: predominantly urban, intermediate and predominantly rural. The methodology used to do this has remained unchangedn (see here.
However, the typology has been updated by taking the latest version of the NUTS classification and population grid into account. The aim of this article is to explain and present the impact of the changes on the main indicators released by urban-rural typology.
_and_its_logistic_curve_(in_blue).PNG)
Urban-rural typology
The urban-rural typology is a geographical typology based on the definition of urban versus rural grid cells of 1 km² each. The typology classifies the NUTS 3 regions into three groups: predominantly urban, intermediate and predominantly rural regions. The type of region depends on the share of the regional population living in rural grid cells, also called the rural population. According to the definition, the predominantly urban regions have less than 20 % rural population, intermediate regions between 20 % and 50 % and predominantly rural regions more than 50 %.
The main inputs used for establishing this typology are the NUTS classification and the population grid. Both of these inputs have been updated. NUTS 2010 replaces NUTS 2006 and the 2006 population grid supplants the 2001 population grid. The urban-rural typology has been recalculated taking these changes into account. The methodology applied to classify the regions has not been changed. So the differences are due to the new version of the NUTS classification and the new population grid used to define grid cells.
Moreover, the geographical coverage of the typology has been extended to EFTA and candidate countries, more specifically to the level 3 statistical regions of these countries, as shown in Figure 2 and 3 (maps). Among the 1294 NUTS 3 regions included in NUTS 2010, 316 are classified as predominantly urban, 496 as intermediate and 482 as predominantly rural, as shown in Table 1.
In Europe, 22 Member states had at least one region in each type. Ireland and Slovenia had only two types of NUTS 3 regions. All Irish NUTS 3 regions are classified as predominantly rural, except for the region of Dublin, which is classified as predominantly urban. Slovenia has 5 intermediate regions and 7 predominantly rural regions. Malta, Cyprus and Luxembourg all have only one type of region. In fact, Luxembourg and Cyprus consist of just one NUTS 3 region, classified as intermediate, and the two Maltese regions at NUTS level 3 are both classified as predominantly urban.
Impact of NUTS 2010 and the new population grid
NUTS 2010 includes 1294 NUTS 3 regions while NUTS 2006 included 1303. In fact, 39 new regions have replaced 48 old regions. The new regions came about due to merges, splits or boundary shifts. Such changes occurred in 5 Member states: Germany, Finland, Italy, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. Of the 48 old regions, 20 were classified as predominantly urban, 21 as intermediate and 7 as predominantly rural, as shown in Table 2. These regions have been replaced by 39 new regions, of which 21 are predominantly urban, 16 intermediate and 2 predominantly rural. The net impact of these changes can be called ‘the NUTS effect’ and is presented in Figure 6.
As an example, the Finish region ‘Ita Uusima (FI182)’, classified as predominantly rural, has been merged with the predominantly urban region ‘Uusima (FI181)’, creating a new region ‘Helsinki-Uusima (FI1B1)’ classified as predominantly urban, as shown in Figures 4 and 5.
The typology update has also brought with it other kinds of changes, as shown in Figure 4 and 5. There were no changes in Estonian regional boundaries between NUTS 2006 and 2010. Based on the new population grid, however, the share of the rural population in the region of ‘Pohja-Eesti’ is now less than 20 %, so the region has been reclassified as predominantly urban.
The other changes in NUTS 2010 compared with NUTS 2006 consist of code or label changes. In terms of their boundaries, 1255 NUTS 3 regions remained the same in NUTS 2010 compared with NUTS 2006. Of these 1 255 regions, only 45 regions belonging to 13 Member states (highlighted in Table 3) have been reclassified under another type. Thus, 4 predominantly urban regions have been reclassified as intermediate, 11 intermediate regions have been reclassified as predominantly urban and 8 as predominantly rural, and 22 predominantly rural regions have been reclassified as intermediate, as shown in Table 3. Reclassifications were quite limited in number and in step. In fact, none of the predominantly urban regions has been reclassified as predominantly rural or vice versa.
The net impact of these changes can be termed ‘the grid effect’, and is presented in Figure 6.
Further Eurostat information
Publications
- Eurostat regional yearbook 2010, chapter 15
Database
Dedicated section
- Regions and cities, see:
- City statistics - Urban Audit
External links
- European Commission - Joint Research Centre
- European Environment Agency - Population density disaggregated with Corine land cover 2000
- European Forum for GeoStatistics
- OECD REGIONAL TYPOLOGY (pdf file, 1.93 Mb)
Source data for tables and graphs (MS Excel)
See also
- European cities - demographic challenges
- European cities - spatial dimension (background article)
- Regional typologies overview (background article)
- Statistics on European cities
- Urban-rural typology (background article)