Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics

[1][2][3][4][5][6][7] The standard, adopted in 2003,[8] is developed and regulated by the European Union, and thus only covers the EU member states in detail.

The Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics is instrumental in the European Union's Structural Funds and Cohesion Fund delivery mechanisms and for locating the area where goods and services subject to European public procurement legislation are to be delivered.

A similar statistical system is defined for the candidate countries and members of the European Free Trade Association, but they are not part of NUTS governed by the regulations.

For example, Luxembourg and Cyprus only have local administrative units (LAUs); the three NUTS divisions each correspond to the entire country itself.

[13] From the NUTS Regulation, the average population size of the regions in the respective level shall lie within the following thresholds:[citation needed] For non-administrative units, deviations from these population marks exist for particular geographical, socio-economic, historical, cultural or environmental circumstances, especially for islands and outermost regions.