Local Administrative Units (LAUs)

To meet the demand for statistics at a local level, Eurostat maintains a system of Local Administrative Units (LAUs) compatible with NUTS. These LAUs are the building blocks of the NUTS, and comprise the municipalities and communes of the European Union. The LAUs are: - administrative for reasons such as the availability of data and policy implementation capacity; - a subdivision of the NUTS 3 regions covering the whole economic territory of the Member States; - appropriate for the implementation of local level typologies included in TERCET, namely the coastal area and DEGURBA classification. Since there are frequent changes to the LAUs, Eurostat publishes an updated list towards the end of each year. The LAUs are currently available from 2011 onwards. The NUTS regulation makes provision for EU Member States to send the lists of their LAUs to Eurostat. If available, Eurostat receives additionally basic administrative data by means of the annual LAU lists, namely total population and total area for each LAU.