Methodology
Concepts and definitions
The definition of city and functional urban area (FUA) is the central aspect of the domain of European city statistics.
- a city is a local administrative unit (LAU) where the majority of the population lives in an urban centre of at least 50 000 inhabitants
- a commuting zone contains the surrounding travel-to-work areas of a city where at least 15% of employed residents are working in this city
- a functional urban area consists of a city and its commuting zone.
Metadata
The metadata on city statistics gathers sources and summary information about data quality and the production process in general, under a standard structure.
The national statistical institutes (NSIs) producing city statistics data are also documenting their national practices under the same structure in order to make European statistics more accessible and clearer. These metadata are available via the file referred above.
Data revision policy
Eurostat encourages national statistical institutes to keep city statistics up to date. Countries may send updates of the data which they previously provided throughout the entire year. This means that updates of the data in Eurostat's database may occur at any time.