NUTS and LAU - OpenStreetMap Wiki

NUTS and LAU - OpenStreetMap Wiki
NUTS and LAU
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Feature
: NUTS and LAU
Description
Regions for statistical purposes in the
European Union
Group
references
Tags
ref:nuts
=*
ref:nuts:1
=*
ref:nuts:2
=*
ref:nuts:3
=*
ref:lau
=*
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.
Contents
Introduction to NUTS and LAU
1.1
Regions belonging to more than one NUTS level
1.2
Historical notes
Tagging
2.1
Tagging details per country
NUTS mapping status per country
External links
4.1
Official source
4.2
Other sources
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 UK instead of GB for the United Kingdom). 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.
NUTS1 - 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 NUTS1 code UKM.
NUTS2 - 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 NUTS2 code CZ020.
NUTS3 - 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; the three NUTS divisions each 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:
NUTS1, 2 and 3
NUTS1 and 2
NUTS2 and 3
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
UK
prefix with
TL
in 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
type
boundary
(required)
denotes that the relation is a
boundary
=*
relation.
boundary
administrative
(required if this matches a national administrative subdivision)
denotes that the relation is a administrative relation.
statistical
(recommended)
otherwise
admin_level
(required if this matches a national administrative subdivision)
see
admin_level
=*
name
Ústecký kraj
(required)
name of the region
wikipedia
cs:Ústecký kraj
(recommended)
the page name on Wikipedia describing the region. This value is very important as Nominatim search derives the importance of region and the result order heavily from this key.
wikidata
Qnnnn
(recommended)
the Wikidata element for the region.
population
828026
(recommended)
population of the region
source:population
csu:uir-zsj
(recommended)
source for population information (possibly with year or date). This is very useful when one wants to update, precise the information in population key.
ref
CZ042
(optional)
the NUTS1/NUTS2/NUTS3/LAU reference number, in case that there are more nomenclatures, it is not clear which one to use. In the European Union it is probably safe to use this official classification. But other countries prefer here their national official reference number (used in most sources and applications, and better known by local users), as NUTS/LAN areas may not always match the current administrative subdivisions (so NUTS/LAU reference numbers they are only used for European statistics, but not directly for most national statistics).
ref:nuts
CZ042
(required if this is a NUTS region)
the 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:1
or
ref:nuts:2
or
ref:nuts:3
CZ042
(optional)
the same as ref:nuts, but explicitly mentioning the level to which region belongs.
This is probably better for computer parsers, since there is currently to tag which like
nuts_level
=*
which would show at which level of nomenclature we are. However this can be infered directly from the hierarchical LAU code format.
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:nuts
ref:lau
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
and
ref:lau:2
531057
(deprecated)
These are no longer relevant, since the two-level LAU1 and LAU2 structure has ended in 2017.
is_in:country
Česko
(deprecated)
country in which the region belongs. Another
is_in
=*
keys can be used as well.
is_in:nuts
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:1
is_in:nuts:2
is_in:nuts:3
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
BE
boundary
administrative
admin_level
Within the
Flemish
and
Walloon
Regions:
boundary
administrative
admin_level
The
Brussels-Capital Region
is the same as NUTS1.
boundary
administrative
admin_level
boundary
administrative
admin_level
The LAU code is the value of
ref:INS
=*
Czechia
The NUTS code prefix is
CZ
Same as country
boundary
administrative
admin_level
boundary
administrative
admin_level
boundary
administrative
admin_level
The LAU code is the last six digits of
ref
=*
Luxembourg
The NUTS code prefix is
LU
Same as country
Same as country
Same as country
boundary
administrative
admin_level
The LAU code is the value of
ref:lau2
=*
Netherlands
(European part)
The NUTS code prefix is
NL
boundary
statistical
designation
landsdeel
boundary
administrative
admin_level
Not mapped yet
boundary
administrative
admin_level
The LAU code is
GM
plus the value of
ref:gemeentecode
=*
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
Table updated: 2025-04-18
Country
NUTS1
NUTS2
NUTS3
OverPass
BE
Belgique/België
NUTS1
NUTS2
NUTS3
BG
България
NUTS1
NUTS2
NUTS3
CZ
Česko
NUTS1
NUTS2
NUTS3
DK
Danmark
NUTS1
NUTS2
NUTS3
DE
Deutschland
NUTS1
NUTS2
NUTS3
EE
Eesti
NUTS1
NUTS2
NUTS3
IE
Éire/Ireland
NUTS1
NUTS2
NUTS3
EL
Ελλάδα
NUTS1
NUTS2
NUTS3
ES
España
NUTS1
NUTS2
NUTS3
FR
France
NUTS1
NUTS2
NUTS3
HR
Hrvatska
NUTS1
NUTS2
NUTS3
IT
Italia
NUTS1
NUTS2
NUTS3
CY
Κύπρος
NUTS1
NUTS2
NUTS3
LV
Latvija
NUTS1
NUTS2
NUTS3
LT
Lietuva
NUTS1
NUTS2
NUTS3
LU
Luxembourg
NUTS1
NUTS2
NUTS3
HU
Magyarország
NUTS1
NUTS2
NUTS3
MT
Malta
NUTS1
NUTS2
NUTS3
NL
Nederland
NUTS1
NUTS2
NUTS3
AT
Österreich
NUTS1
NUTS2
NUTS3
PL
Polska
NUTS1
NUTS2
NUTS3
PT
Portugal
NUTS1
NUTS2
NUTS3
RO
România
NUTS1
NUTS2
NUTS3
SI
Slovenija
NUTS1
NUTS2
NUTS3
SK
Slovensko
NUTS1
NUTS2
NUTS3
FI
Suomi/Finland
NUTS1
NUTS2
NUTS3
SE
Sverige
NUTS1
NUTS2
NUTS3
UK
United Kingdom
NUTS1
NUTS2
NUTS3
IS
Ísland
NUTS1
NUTS2
NUTS3
LI
Liechtenstein
NUTS1
NUTS2
NUTS3
NO
Norge
NUTS1
NUTS2
NUTS3
CH
Schweiz/Suisse/Svizzera
NUTS1
NUTS2
NUTS3
ME
Црна Гора
NUTS1
NUTS2
NUTS3
MK
Северна Македонија
NUTS1
NUTS2
NUTS3
AL
Shqipëria
NUTS1
NUTS2
NUTS3
RS
Srbija/Сpбија
NUTS1
NUTS2
NUTS3
TR
Türkiye
NUTS1
NUTS2
NUTS3
UK switched from NUTS codes to
International Territorial Level (ITL)
codes after leaving the EU
External links
Official source
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)
(current version in 24 languages, the NUTS regions are listed in the annex)
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
Retrieved from "
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