Responsible authority
Central Statistical Bureau
Status
European Union
Abbreviation
NUTS 2021
Purpose of introduction

Breakdown of country territory in territorial units meeting European Union criteria (population) aiming to ensure comparable regional statistics among European countries.

Classification object

Statistical units (regions of various levels) in European Union Member States.

Area of application
  • the collection, development and harmonisation of regional statistics;

  • statistics for macroeconomics;

  • EU structural funds.

Author

Statistical Office of the European Union (Eurostat)

Planned update or revision

The classification in line with the Regulation (EC) No 1059/2003 Section 5, Clause 4 is updated and revised not more often than in every three years.
The current NUTS 2021 classification is valid from 1 January 2021. 

Coding system, code length, number of levels

Coding system – hierarchical
Code length – five characters
Number of levels – 3

Number of units in the European Union territories as of 1 January 2021:
NUTS 1: major socio-economic regions – 92 
NUTS 2: basic regions for the application of regional policies – 242
NUTS 3: small regions for specific diagnoses – 1166 

Description of hierarchy
Each Member State is broken down into territorial units of NUTS Level 1, each of which us broken down into territorial units of NUTS Level 2, which, in turn, are broken down into territorial units of NUTS Level 3.

More information
More information is available on the Eurostat website section NUTS 

Toms Zaltāns

Expert
Toms.Zaltans [at] csp.gov.lv