OECD Regions and Cities at a Glance 2020

Annex A. Defining regions and functional urban areas

Table A.1. Territorial grid of OECD member countries

Country	Territorial level 2 (TL2)	Territorial level 3 (TL3)
Australia	States/territories (8)	Statistical Areas Level 4 and Greater Capital City Statistical Area (49)
Austria	Bundesländer (9)	Gruppen von Politischen Bezirken (35)
Belgium	Régions (3)	Arrondissements (44)
Canada	Provinces and territories (13)	Census divisions (294)
Chile	Regions (16)	Provincias (56)
Colombia	Departamentos + Capital District (33)	Departamentos + Capital District (33)
Czech Republic	Oblasti (8)	Kraje (14)
Denmark	Regioner (5)	Landsdeler (11)
Estonia	Region (1)	Groups of maakond (5)
Finland	Suuralueet (5)	Maakunnat (19)
France	Régions (13) + Régions d’outre-mer (5)	Départements (96) + Départements d’outre-mer (5)
Germany	Länder (16)	Kreise (401)
Greece	Regions (13)	Regional units and combination of regional units (52)
Hungary	Planning statistical regions (8)	Counties and Budapest (20)
Iceland	Regions (2)	Landsvaedi (8)
Ireland	Groups Regional Authority Regions (3)	Regional Authority Regions (8)
Israel	Districts (6)	Districts (6)
Italy	Regioni (21)	Province (110)
Japan	Groups of prefectures (10)	Prefectures (47)
Korea	Regions (7)	Special city, metropolitan area and province (17)
Latvia	Region (1)	Statistical regions (6)
Lithuania	Group of counties (2)	Counties (10)
Luxembourg	State (1)	State (1)
Mexico	Estados (32)	Grupos de municipios (209)
Netherlands	Provinces (12)	COROP regions (40)
New Zealand	Regional councils (14)	Regional councils (14)
Norway	Landsdeler (7)	Fylker (18)
Poland	Vojewodztwa (17)	Podregiony (73)
Portugal	Comissaoes de coordenaçao e desenvolvimento regional e regioes autonomas (7)	Grupos de municipios (25)
Slovak Republic	Zoskupenia krajov (4)	Kraj (8)
Slovenia	Kohezijske regije (2)	Statisticne regije (12)
Spain	Comunidades autonomas (17)/Ciudades autónomas (2)	Provincias (50)
Sweden	Riksomraden (8)	Län (21)
Switzerland	Grandes regions (7)	Cantons (26)
Turkey	Regions (26)	Provinces (81)
United Kingdom	Regions and countries (12)	Upper-tier authorities or groups of lower-tier authorities or groups of unitary authorities or LECs or groups of districts (179)
United States	States and the District of Columbia (51)	Economic areas (179)
Country	Non-official grid (NOG)
Canada	LFS, Economic regions (72)
France	Regions before 2015 territorial reform (22)
Germany	Spatial planning regions (96)

Table A.2. Territorial grid of selected emerging economies

Region	Territorial levels 2	Territorial levels 3
Brazil	Estados + districto federal (27)	Mesoregiao (137)
Bulgaria	Planning regions/Rayoni za planirane (6)	Oblasts/Podregioni (28)
China	31 provinces; special administrative region of Hong Kong, special administrative region of Macao and Chinese Taipei (33)	-
Costa Rica	Regiones Mideplan (6)	Regiones Mideplan (6)
India	States and union territories (35)	-
Malta	State (1)	Islands/Gzejjer (2)
Peru	Departamentos + Provincia Constitucional del Callao (25)	-
Romania	Regions/Regiuni (8)	Counties + Bucharest/Județe + București (42)
Russian Federation	Oblast or okrug (83)	-
South Africa	Provinces (9)	-
Tunisia	Grandes régions (6)	Régions (24)

Table A.3. Smallest and largest regional population and surface by country, 2019

Country	Number of TL3 regions	Region with the highest		Region with the lowest		Number of TL2 regions	Region with the highest		Region with the lowest
		Population	Density	Population	Density		Population	Density	Population	Density
Australia	49	5 230 330	510.1	38 608	0.1	8	8 089 526	181.7	245 869	0.2
Austria	35	1 897 491	4 791.6	20 320	20.1	9	1 897 491	4 791.6	293 433	59.9
Belgium	44	1 215 290	7 501.8	49 125	46.7	3	6 596 233	7 501.8	1 215 290	216.1
Canada	294	2 965 713	4 707.5	734	<0.1	13	14 566 547	27.6	38 780	<0.1
Chile	56	5 838 768	2 876.2	2 107	0.1	16	7 915 199	513.9	106 680	1.0
Colombia	33	8 281 030	5 218.0	44 134	0.6	33	8 281 030	5 218.0	44 134	0.6
Czech Republic	14	1 369 332	2 698.2	294 896	66.8	8	1 696 941	2 698.2	1 115 685	71.6
Denmark	11	890 567	4 509.3	39 662	61.3	5	1 835 562	753.8	589 755	76.4
Estonia	5	599 478	138.2	122 922	13.3	1	1 324 820	30.5	1 324 820	30.5
Finland	19	1 671 024	183.7	29 789	1.9	5	1 671 024	183.7	29 789	6.3
France	101	2 594 456	20 979.9	76 401	3.4	18	12 244 807	1 024.5	269 471	3.4
Germany	401	3 644 826	4 746.8	34 209	36.1	16	17 932 651	4 308.3	682 986	71.3
Greece	52	1 104 690	10 431.4	18 814	10.3	13	3 742 235	987.9	203 869	28.9
Hungary	20	1 752 286	3 435.9	189 304	52.5	8	1 752 286	3 435.9	879 596	63.9
Iceland	8	228 231	218.8	7 063	0.5	2	228 231	220.7	128 760	1.3
Ireland	8	1 387 606	1 501.7	304 163	33.7	3	2 411 912	168.6	867 947	34.8
Israel	6	2 196 100	8 297.7	1 032 800	91.8	6	2 196 100	8 297.7	1 032 800	91.8
Italy	110	4 342 212	2 627.7	56 362	30.5	21	10 060 574	436.5	125 666	38.7
Japan	47	13 822 000	7 272.2	560 000	63.0	10	36 584 000	2 801.9	3 756 000	63.0
Korea	17	13 237 797	15 944.0	331 136	91.5	7	25 843 830	2 207.9	659 539	91.5
Latvia	6	632 614	2 452.0	186 095	12.4	1	1 919 968	30.3	1 919 968	30.3
Lithuania	10	810 538	86.0	93 695	19.1	2	1 983 646	86.0	810 538	37.3
Luxembourg	1	613 894	237.4	613 894	237.4	1	613 894	237.4	613 894	237.4
Mexico	209	8 259 863	7 434.6	9 752	0.8	32	17 841 825	5 905.7	771 377	11.6
Netherlands	40	1 441 452	3 367.6	46 051	142.4	12	3 709 139	1 286.1	383 032	184.3
New Zealand	14	1 642 800	367.0	32 600	1.4	14	1 642 800	367.0	32 600	1.4
Norway	18	681 067	1 576.5	75 863	1.6	7	1 305 122	257.6	386 951	4.5
Poland	73	1 775 986	3 509.9	185 908	41.7	17	4 488 998	507.8	946 038	57.6
Portugal	25	2 863 272	950.09	80 230	13.9	7	3 575 338	950.0.9	242 796	22.0
Slovak Republic	8	825 022	326.4	563 591	68.6	4	1 826 145	326.4	659 598	82.8
Slovenia	12	549 171	235.9	52 544	36.7	2	1 094 435	126.3	986 473	88.7
Spain	59	6 641 649	6 049.2	11 154	8.7	19	8 427 405	6 049.2	84 689	25.7
Sweden	21	2 344 124	359.3	59 249	2.6	8	2 344 124	359.3	375 733	3.4
Switzerland	26	1 520 968	5 410.2	16 145	28.0	7	1 877 154	919.6	353 343	104.3
Turkey	81	15 067 724	2 903.8	82 274	11.9	26	15 067 724	2 903.8	819 468	26.7
United Kingdom	179	1 194 634	15 991.1	22 055	7.0	12	9 175 033	5 717.5	1 885 189	70.0
United States	179	23 598 359	612.0	83 057	0.5	51	39 512 223	4 438.7	578 759	0.5
OECD average	62	3 911 228	4 338.4	147 764	34.0	12	7 656 033	2 062.8	688 145	52.4

Figure A.1. Extended regional typology

Figure A.2. Methodology to define the functional urban areas

Table A.4. Number of metropolitan areas and share of national population in metropolitan areas, 2018

Metropolitan areas (FUAs with a population above 250 000)

	Total metropolitan areas		Population between 250 000 and 500 000		Population between 500 000 and 1.5 million		Population above 1.5 million		Rest (non-metropolitan)
Country	Number	% of national population	Number	% of national population	Number	% of national population	Number	% of national population	% of national population
Australia	11	73.8	5	7	2	7.9	4	58.9	26.2
Austria	6	59.4	3	11.1	2	14.7	1	33.6	40.6
Belgium	5	49.2	1	4.3	3	21.6	1	23.3	50.8
Canada	16	66.6	5	5	6	13.8	5	47.7	33.4
Switzerland	5	39.3	2	9.9	3	29.4	0	0	60.7
Chile	10	65.9	7	14.5	2	11	1	40.3	34.1
Colombia	22	55.9	11	8.4	7	11.1	4	36.4	44.1
Czech Republic	4	37.9	1	3.3	2	13.7	1	20.9	62.1
Germany	68	68.4	40	17.2	20	20.3	8	30.9	31.6
Denmark	4	54.2	2	12.1	1	8.9	1	33.2	45.8
Spain	26	55.2	13	9.7	9	13.3	4	32.3	44.8
Estonia	1	44.7	0	0	1	44.7	0	0	55.3
Finland	4	46.2	3	19.2	1	27	0	0	53.8
France	46	56.6	29	14.7	15	19.5	2	22.4	43.4
United Kingdom	46	69.3	25	13.8	15	18	6	37.5	30.7
Greece	2	42.8	0	0	1	9.8	1	33	57.2
Hungary	5	42.1	4	11.6	0	0	1	30.5	57.9
Ireland	2	49.1	1	9	0	0	1	40.1	50.9
Italy	25	41.5	12	6.7	9	10.5	4	24.4	58.5
Japan	54	78.3	18	5.2	30	18.9	6	54.2	21.7
Korea	20	81.6	7	4.5	9	14.4	4	62.7	18.4
Lithuania	2	38.5	1	13.6	1	24.9	0	0	61.5
Luxembourg	1	100	0	0	1	100	0	0	0
Latvia	1	48.2	0	0	1	48.2	0	0	51.8
Mexico	65	61	26	7.1	30	20.1	9	33.8	39
Netherlands	16	64.4	11	22.4	3	15.9	2	26	35.6
Norway	4	45.7	3	19.6	1	26.1	0	0	54.3
Poland	20	42.8	11	10.5	7	17.3	2	15	57.2
Portugal	3	43.9	1	2.6	1	12.4	1	28.9	56.1
Slovak Republic	2	18.7	1	6.7	1	12	0	0	81.3
Slovenia	2	41.8	1	15.6	1	26.2	0	0	58.2
Sweden	4	42.4	1	2.9	2	16.7	1	22.8	57.6
United States	166	72.5	72	7.8	59	15.3	35	49.4	27.5