What is NUTS?

The Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics (NUTS) is a standardised geocoding system developed by Eurostat and the European Union to classify administrative regions and territorial divisions across EU Member States, as well as for EFTA, candidate and potential candidate countries.

In European public procurement (including eForms), NUTS codes are very valuable to specify the location of organisations and the place of performance, identifying more precisely where works, goods, or services subject to EU procurement directives are to be performed or delivered.

How are NUTS codes structured?

NUTS establishes a 3-level hierarchical breakdown to classify geographical regions across participating countries:

NUTS 1: Major socio-economic regions.

NUTS 2: Basic regions for the application of regional policies.

NUTS 3: Small regions for specific diagnoses and local level analyses.

NUTS codes always start with a 2-letter country code, followed by a number or letter representing each level of subdivision.

For example. the “arrondissement” of Arlon in Belgium is: BE (Country Code) BE3 (NUTS 1) BE34 (NUTS 2) BE341 (NUTS 3).

"Extraregio” territories (ending in “Z”) are designed for special territories of countries that cannot be attached to a certain region (such as territorial waters or consulates).

What criteria define a NUTS region?

NUTS regions are established in accordance with the NUTS Regulation (EC) No 1059/2003 and are generally based on existing national administrative subdivisions and official population thresholds:

NUTS 1: Major socio-economic regions

• Population Range: 3 000 000 – 7 000 000 inhabitants

• Typical Scale: Major national regions, groups of provinces, or large states.

NUTS 2: Basic regions for regional policies

• Population Range: 800 000 – 3 000 000 inhabitants

• Typical Scale: Autonomous regions, provinces, or basic administrative divisions.

NUTS 3: Small regions for local analyses

• Population Range: 150 000 – 800 000 inhabitants

• Typical Scale: Departments, districts, prefectures, or small provinces. Exceptions exist for non-administrative, island, or specific geographical units.

What happens in smaller countries?

In Member States with smaller populations, the entire country may fit into more than one NUTS level. In these cases, each level is identical in territory to the whole country but are assigned codes of corresponding lengths for standardisation.

For example, in Luxembourg all 3 levels are the same (LU0, LU00, LU000), while in Latvia, levels 1 and 2 correspond to the country (LV0, LV00) with level 3 corresponding to sub-regions.

How are NUTS codes used in eForms?

In procurement notices, in accordance with Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2019/1780 NUTS codes must be specified in these business terms:

• Place of Performance country subdivision (BT-5071): Indicates the geographical location where the works are executed or where supplies or services are delivered.

• Organisation country subdivision (BT-507): Identifies the administrative location of every organisation in the notice such as buyers and tenderers.

eForms notices require NUTS Level 3 (the most granular regional level) for locations in countries that use NUTS codes. For place of performance, it is possible for buyers to specify more than one NUTS code, or to specify no NUTS code if the place is anywhere in the country, anywhere in the EEA or anywhere in the world.

How often do NUTS code change?

The NUTS Regulation (EC) No 1059/2003 states that the classification should stay stable for at least 3 years. Only EU Member States are included in this regulation. The NUTS codes for EFTA and candidate countries are formally known as “statistical regions" and are based on bilateral agreements, which may lead to code changes outside of the lifecycle of the NUTS regulation.

The NUTS 2024 classification is in force since 1 January 2024, listing 92 regions at NUTS 1, 244 regions at NUTS 2, and 1,165 regions at NUTS 3 level. The next revision, NUTS 2027, will be applicable from 1 January 2027. The search function on the TED website maps the changes to NUTS codes so that it is still possible to find older notices linked to the latest NUTS codes.

Where can I find the complete list of NUTS codes per country?

The classification is maintained and regularly updated by Eurostat. You can consult the full breakdown by country, download the dataset and find out more on the Eurostat NUTS website.

The Publications Office also maintains the NUTS taxonomy on EU Vocabularies in different formats and the eForms Software Development Kit includes NUTS as a codelist used for the validation of notices.