Developed by Eurostat and implemented in 1998, the Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics (NUTS) regions, which comprises three levels of the Portuguese territory, are instrumental in European Union's Structural Fund delivery mechanisms.
[1][2] The standard was developed by the European Union and extensively used by national governments, Eurostat and other EU bodies for statistical and policy matters.
In the broadest sense, the NUTS hierarchy, while they may follow some of the borders (municipal or parish) diverge in their delineation.
[6] The two autonomous regions (Portuguese: regiões autónomas) in the Atlantic, correspond to their own NUTS I, II and III categories.
The regions, subregions and their NUTS codes are:[5] Municipalities and civil parishes were at NUTS IV and V levels, but these nomenclature units have been abolished and substituted by LAUs: the municipality is classified as LAU 1, while the civil parish is LAU level 2.