DS Rural development > Methodology > EN > REVAMP

Predominantly rural regions are defined by the urban-rural typology. This typology uses a 3 step approach to classify regions, following the nomenclature of territorial units for statistics (NUTS) level 3 regions.

Step 1: Definition of rural grid cells

The first step is to identify populations in rural grid cells. Rural grid cells include all cells outside urban clusters. Urban clusters are groups of contiguous grid cells of 1 km2 with a density of at least 300 inhabitants per km2 and a minimum population of 5 000.

Step 2: Classification of the regions

In the second step, NUTS level 3 regions are classified based on the proportion of their population living in rural grid cells:

  • predominantly rural regions: if more than half of the population lives in rural grid cells
  • intermediate regions: if the proportion of the population living in rural grid cells is between 20% and 50%
  • predominantly urban regions: if less than 20% of the population lives in rural grid cells.

To resolve the distortion caused by extremely small NUTS level 3 regions, regions of less than 500 km2 are combined with one or more of their neighbours for classification purposes.

Step 3: Adjustments for a presence of city

In a third step, the size of the urban centres in the region is considered.

A predominantly rural region with an urban centre of more than 200 000 inhabitants, accounting for at least 25% of the regional population, becomes intermediate.

An intermediate region with an urban centre of more than 500 000 inhabitants, that account for at least 25% of the regional population, becomes predominantly urban.

Please also consult the schematic overview of the urban-rural typologies.

Lists

For a full list of predominantly rural regions, please consult the following files and select the spreadsheet named ‘Urban-rural’ in the Excel file:

Further reading