Definition: Local administrative unit

Category: Regional statistics

The local administrative units, abbreviated as LAUs, form a system for dividing up the economic territory of the European Union (EU) for the purpose of statistics at local level. They have been set up by Eurostat and they are compatible with NUTS. 

At local level, two levels of LAU have been defined: 

The upper level (LAU1, formerly NUTS level 4) is defined for most, but not all, of the countries. 
The lower level (LAU2, formerly NUTS level 5) consists of municipalities or equivalent units in the EU Member States.