Regional Statistics and Indicators

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The OECD has developed two statistical databases to answer the increasing demand for statistical information at the regional level:

The OECD Regional Database provides a unique set of comparable statistics and indicators on about 2 000 regions in 34 countries. It currently encompasses yearly time series for around 40 indicators of demography, economic accounts, labour market, social and innovation themes in the OECD member countries and other economies.

The OECD Metropolitan Database provides a set of economic, environmental, social and demographic indicators on the 268 OECD metropolitan areas (functional urban areas with 500 000 or more inhabitants).

Use the web-tools OECD eXplorer and Metro eXplorer to compare demographic trends, economic, social and environmental performance of regions and metropolitan areas in OECD countries and to view interactive maps and other visual presentations of the regional database and the metropolitan database

Regions in OECD member countries (pdf 9.6mb) have been classified according to two territorial levels (TL) to facilitate international comparability. The higher level (territorial level 2) consists of macro-regions, while the lower level (Territorial level 3) is composed of micro-regions. In addition, OECD small regions (Territorial level 3) are classified according to their geography and remoteness into predominantly urban, intermediate, predominantly rural close to a city and predominantly remote rural regions (OECD Regional Typology).

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ISB‌N: 9789264105140

Pages: 160

The series OECD Regions at a Glance compares major regional patterns and trends across OECD countries and diffuses the statistical tools elaborated by the Working Party on Territorial Indicators for the analysis of regional economies.

Previous editions: 2005 Edition 2007 Edition 2009 Edition

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Regions at a Glance interactive unlocks the wealth of regional information behind this book to help you better see, use and sharethe range of data and findings that shape our regions.

To get started, click on the image on the left.

A harmonised definition of urban areas has been developed by the OECD, in collaboration with the EU. This definition is applied to 29 OECD countries and identifies 1 175 functional urban areas. This methodology makes possible to compare functional urban areas of similar size across countries.

OECD classifies the functional urban areas into four types according to population size: Large metropolitan areas consist of urban areas with a population of 1.5 million or more; metropolitan areas, with a population of between 500 000 and 1.5 million (these two form the OECD metropolitan database); medium-sized urban areas, with a population of between 200 000 and 500 000 and Small urban areas, with a population below 200 000 people.

Redefining Urban Areas

With over half the world's population now living in urban areas, defining an urban area is critical in order to reflect the reality of where people live and work, as well as the connections between cities and urban areas.

The OECD work on urban development enables comparison across a range of indicators between cities. This video presents the work of the OECD with key facts on metropolitan areas in OECD countries and a demonstration of how to use the Metro eXplorer database.

The Working Party on Territorial Indicators brings together international experts from all OECD countries to carry out statistical work on the measurement of regional economies. Yearly workshops organised by the WPTI include: