Cognised existence: A statistical unit is a territory defined so that figures can be reported and compared: NUTS regions across Europe, municipalities as LAU, census tracts within a country. The unit’s ID is what statistical tables carry; the geometry is borrowed from a realisation of the unit at the scale the map needs.
Question: Which statistical unit does a location or a statistical figure belong to?
What is a Statistical Unit?
Statistics are published per unit ID, usually without geometry. A table of population per NUTS 3 region lists DK011, DK012 and so on; to map it, the IDs are joined to a geometry of the same NUTS version. The same unit exists at several scales, from detailed boundaries for local maps to strongly generalised ones for maps of Europe, and all of them share the ID.
Two things matter for a correct join:
- The ID scheme:
NUTS_ID,LAU_IDor a national code such as kommunekode. - The version: NUTS is revised every few years and IDs can change between versions; LAU changes yearly.
Data that refers to a statistical unit records both in its realisation as anchored_by.
Realisations
Instead of hardcoding implementation schemas here, SPHERE separates semantic meaning from dataset implementation. The realisations are listed in priority order:
- Eurostat GISCO — NUTS (cartographic_compilation)
- Eurostat GISCO — LAU (cartographic_compilation)
- Københavns Kommune statistical units (administrative_register)
Classical Theme References
| Standard | Theme | Link |
|---|---|---|
| INSPIRE | Statistical Units | Statistical Units |