City Statistics Illustrated is based on data collected by Eurostat in the Urban Audit and in the Large City Audit project.
All data refer to the Urban Audit core cities (except London) and the reference year 2014. Cases in which data from previous reference years up to 2009 have been used are marked with a footnote. Date of extraction from the Eurostat database: 08.09.2016
The size of the circles on the main map represents the population size of the core cities according to the following 6 classes: <= 100 000 100 000 - 250 000 250 000 - 500 000 500 000 - 1 000 000 1 000 000- 3 000 000 > 3 000 000
The full list of 187 variables and 63 indicators and the entire time series is available in the Eurostat online database (search for codes starting with urb_).
For methodological information, please see the Urban Audit metadata file.
Predominantly urban regions (rural population: <20 % of the total population)
Intermediate regions (rural population: 20–50 % of the total population)
Predominantly rural regions(rural population: >50 % of the total population)
Data not available
Please note that for Ireland Cyprus, Luxembourg, Malta and Slovenia, data is not available for all three types of NUTS 3 regions (predominantly urban, intermediate, predominantly rural):
Ireland only has regions classified as predominantly urban and predominantly rural.
Cyprus and Luxembourg only have one region each which is classified as intermediate.
Malta only has regions classified as predominantly urban.
Slovenia only has regions classified as intermediate or predominantly rural.
Missing data for any of the other EU countries is due to a lack of available or reliable data for a certain type of region or reference year.
Cities
Towns and Suburbs
Rural areas
Island regions
Non-island regions
Island regions
Non-island regions
> 50 % of population
> 50 % of surface
> 50 % of population & surface
Mountain regions
Non-mountain regions
Border regions
Non-border regions
Please note that for Ireland Cyprus, Luxembourg, Malta and Slovenia, data is not available for all three types of NUTS 3 regions (predominantly urban, intermediate, predominantly rural):
Ireland only has regions classified as predominantly urban and predominantly rural.
Cyprus and Luxembourg only have one region each which is classified as intermediate.
Malta only has regions classified as predominantly urban.
Slovenia only has regions classified as intermediate or predominantly rural.
Missing data for any of the other EU countries is due to a lack of available or reliable data for a certain type of region or reference year.
Islands are defined as territories having:
a minimum surface of 1 km²;
a minimum distance between the island and the mainland of 1 km;
a resident population of more than 50 inhabitants;
no fixed link (bridge, tunnel, dyke) between the island and the mainland.
NUTS-3 island regions can correspond to a single island, or can be composed of several islands, or can be part of a bigger island containing several NUTS-3 regions.
Mountain regions at NUTS-3 level are defined as regions in which more than 50% of the surface is covered by topographic mountain areas, or in which more than 50% of the regional population lives in these topographic mountain areas.
The study on mountain areas in Europe defines topographic mountain areas using the following criteria:
above 2500m, all areas are included within the mountain delimitation;
between 1500m and 2500m, only areas with a slope of over two degrees within a 3 km radius are considered mountainous.
Between 1000m and 1500m, areas had to justify one of two sets of criteria in order to be considered mountainous. The first of these is that the slope within a 3 km radius should exceed five degrees. If the slope is less steep than this, the area can still be considered mountainous if elevations encountered within a radius of 7 km vary by at least 300 metres. If neither of these two sets of criteria is met, the area is considered non-mountainous.
Between 300m and 1000m, only the latter of the two previous sets of criteria is applied. This means that only areas in which elevations encountered within a radius of 7 km vary by at least 300 metres are considered mountainous.
Below 300m, the objective was to identify areas with strong local contrasts in topography, such as Scottish and Norwegian fjords and Mediterranean coastal mountain areas. Selecting areas according to the standard deviation of elevations in the immediate vicinity of each appeared to be the best approach for the inclusion of these types of landscape. For each point of the digital elevation model, the standard deviation from the eight cardinal points surrounding it (North – North-East – East – South-East – South – South-West – West – North-West) was calculated. If this standard deviation is greater than 50 metres, the landscape is sufficiently undulating to be considered mountainous despite its low elevation.
The typology of NUTS-3 mountain regions distinguishes three categories:
regions with more than 50% of their population living in mountain areas;
regions with more than 50% of their surface covered by mountain areas;
regions with more than 50% of their surface covered by mountain areas, and with more than 50% of their population living in mountain areas.
Border regions on this map are NUTS-3 regions with a land border.