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Rural development statistics is derived from data on regions that are predominantly rural, as defined by the urban-rural typology. They are based on the nomenclature of territorial units for statistics (NUTS) and refer to NUTS level 3 regions, where at least 50% of the population live in rural grid cells.

Statistics on rural development measure economic and social issues associated with predominantly rural regions. They may answer questions such as:

  • is the unemployment rate higher in predominantly rural regions compared with predominantly urban and intermediate regions?
  • is the ageing of the population progressing faster in predominantly rural regions compared with predominantly urban and intermediate regions?
  • which are the more important economic sectors in predominantly rural regions?

Data on NUTS level 3 are used as building blocks to calculate aggregates for the predominantly rural regions. These aggregates are updated automatically when one of the underlying building blocks is being updated in the Eurostat online database.

Available topics

Data is available for the following topics:

  • business demography
  • crimes
  • demography
  • economic accounts
  • intellectual property rights
  • labour market
  • transport

Policy context

Statistics on rural regions are crucial for informing and shaping effective rural development policies. Understanding the unique characteristics, challenges, and opportunities in rural regions allows policymakers to design targeted strategies that address the specific needs of these regions, for example using the rural observatory.

Further reading