Territorial typologies
European regional statistics are widely used in EU regional policy to determine a region’s eligibility for cohesion funds.
In recent years, Eurostat has expanded the range of statistics published on a number of territorial typologies to address EU policymakers' growing need for such data in cohesion and territorial development policies.
These typologies are already in use in EU legislation, for instance in EU regulation 522/2014 which refers to the degree of urbanisation of local administrative units (LAUs) to determine eligibility for support from EU regional development funds to carry out innovative actions in cities, towns and suburbs.
To ensure a harmonised application of the typologies and allow for cross-referencing other acts and programmes, the NUTS regulation was amended by the Tercet regulation on 18 January 2018, introducing a number of territorial typologies based on the classification.
In depth-information on the typologies can be found in the methodological manual on territorial typologies.
Tercet only covers the most basic and most relevant typologies, as outlined below.
Regional level (NUTS 3)
- classes:
- predominantly urban regions
- intermediate regions
- predominantly rural regions
- more information: section on rural development
- maps and data: Regions and cities illustrated visualisation tool
- classes:
- metropolitan regions
- non-metropolitan regions
- more information: section on metropolitan regions
- maps and data: Regions and cities illustrated visualisation tool
- classes:
- coastal regions
- non-coastal regions
- more information: section on coastal, island and outermost regions
- maps and data: Regions and cities illustrated visualisation tool
Local level (LAU)
- classes:
- urban areas
- cities
- towns and suburbs
- rural areas
- urban areas
- more information: section on degree of urbanisation
- maps and data: Regions and cities illustrated visualisation tool
- consist of:
- cities plus their
- commuting zones
- more information: section on cities
- data: database page in the section on cities
- classes:
- coastal areas
- non-coastal areas
- data: database page in the section on coastal, island and outermost regions