Rapid Reports. Regions. The regional map of the Community Update.

Abstract

The enlargement of the Community to include Spain and Portugal has of necessity led to an updating of the Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics -the NUTS. The constitutional and administrative regions already existing in Spain -the "Comunidades Autonomas" (and the territories of Ceuta and Melilla) and the "Provincias" -fitted the criteria of the NUTS and were adopted for levels II and III respectively. In Portugal the needs of Community policy indicated the use at lev~l II of the planning areas of the "Comissaoes de Coordena~ao Regional" (CCR) and the "Regioes Autonomas" of A~ores and Madeira. This necessitated an important reorganisation of the existing territorial units for statistical uses (districtos); a decision of the Council of Ministers (Diario da Republica, 5.5. 1986) defined the new Level III units by regrouping the "concelhos". The NUTS now covers 64 regions at level I, 167 at level II and 823 at level III.