Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics(NUTS)Description from webpage The NUTS classification is a hierarchical system for dividing up the economic territory of the EU for the purpose of :
* The collection, development and harmonisation of EU regional statistics.
* Socio-economic analyses of the regions.
o NUTS 1: major socio-economic regions
o NUTS 2: basic regions for the application of regional policies
o NUTS 3: as small regions for specific diagnoses
* Framing of EU regional policies.
o Regions eligible for aid from the Structural Funds (Objective 1) have been classified at the NUTS 2 level.
o Areas eligible under the other priority objectives have mainly been classified at the NUTS 3 level.
o The Cohesion report has so far mainly been prepared at the NUTS 2 level.