Summary

Description

The Nomenclature of territorial units for statistics, abbreviated as NUTS (from the French 'Nomenclature des Unités territoriales statistiques') is a geographical classification that subdivides territories of the European Union (EU) into regions at three different levels (NUTS 1, 2 and 3, respectively, moving from larger to smaller territorial units). At the local scale, two levels of Local Administrative Units (LAU) are also defined: LAU 1 and LAU 2 (formerly referred to as NUTS 4 and NUTS 5, respectively). NUTS areas aim to provide a single and coherent territorial breakdown for the collection, development, and harmonisation of EU regional statistics. Further, eligibility for aid from European Structural Funds (for those regions whose development is lagging behind) is assessed at NUTS 2 level. The NUTS classification was originally developed by Eurostat in the early 1970's, however, only gained legal status with Regulation (EC) No 1059/2003 which entered into force in July 2003. A first regular amendment ((EC) No 105/2007) replaced the 2003 version of NUTS with the 2006 version, enacted on 1 January 2008. The current classification is valid until December 31, 2011. For Scottish NUTS areas, the NUTS 1 region covers the whole of Scotland, whereas NUTS 2 subdivides Scotland into 4 regions, and NUTS 3 to 23 regions. Above NUTS 1 is the 'national' level of the EU Member State - the United Kingdom. For Local Administrative Units (LAU) there are currently 41 units at LAU level 1 and 1,222 at level 2. Codes for NUTS regions are prefixed by the characters 'UKM', where 'UK' identifies the member state, the United Kingdom, and 'M' indicates Scotland.