Map Facts

The map shows the regional and municipal divisions of the Nordic and Baltic countries, including the latest municipal boundary changes as of 1 January 2015. The regional divisions displayed in the map follow the individual countries national administrative system. However, they are presented in the map according to the all-European “NUTS” classification system, “Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics”. Likewise, municipalities are presented in the map according to the European wide “LAU” system, “Local Administrative Units”.

The European standardized “NUTS” and “LAU” systems classify individual countries’ administrative levels into one common structure, e.g. by taking into consideration population size, and thus facilitate comparisons between European countries’ regions and municipalities. Such standardization is in many cases very useful from a statistical point of view, for example regarding analysing and presenting data on a comparable administrative level. However, these comparable administrative levels do not always match with relevant policy perspectives within each individual country. E.g. within the Nordic and Baltic countries, the standard regional level is equal to NUTS 3 in Finland (maakunta/landskap), Norway (fylke) and Sweden (län). In Denmark, on the other hand, since the regional reform in Denmark in 2007 the NUTS 2 level (regioner) is the main regional division.

Likewise, in the Nordic and Baltic countries, the municipalities are in most cases equal to the LAU 2 level. However, also in this case densely populated Denmark is an exception, as Denmark’s LAU 2 units consist of parishes (sogne), while Danish municipalities are equal to the LAU 1 division.

In addition, despite the standardization notable variations in the structure of the local administrative regions still exist, simply because of the varying number of NUTS and LAU units in different countries, and in relation to the countries’ sizes both in terms of population and area. One of many examples are Sweden and Estonia, where the difference in number of municipalities are quite small (290 versus 213), while Sweden covers a much bigger area and has almost eight times Estonia’s population.

Map ID: 0753a

Designer/Cartographer
Linus Rispling

Data source
NSIs, Eurostat, Estonian Land Board, Geodatastyrelsen

Published 24 February 2015

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Regions and municipalities in the Nordic and Baltic countries in 2015

February, 2015

Administrative divisions according to NUTS and LAU nomenclature by 1 January 2015

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Linus Rispling
Senior Cartographer/GIS Analyst

Regions and municipalities in the Nordic and Baltic countries in 2015

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