OECD Regions and Cities at a Glance 2022

Annex A. Defining regions, cities and metropolitan 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 (50)
Austria	Bundesländer (9)	Gruppen von Politischen Bezirken (35)
Belgium	Régions (3)	Arrondissements (44)
Canada	Provinces and territories (13)	Census divisions (293)
Chile	Regions (16)	Provincias (56)
Colombia	Departamentos + Capital District (33)	Subregions (158)
Costa Rica	Planning regions (6)	Planning regions (6)
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 (107)
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 (13)
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 (59)
Sweden	Riksomraden (8)	Län (21)
Switzerland	Grandes régions (7)	Cantons (26)
Türkiye	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)

Table A.2. Territorial grid of selected emerging economies

Region	Territorial Level 2 (TL2)	Territorial Level 3 (TL3)
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 (China), special administrative region of Macao (China) and Chinese Taipei (33)	-
India	States and union territories (36)	-
Malta	State (1)	Islands/Gzejjer (2)
Peru	Departamentos + Provincia Constitucional del Callao (25)	-
Romania	Regions/Regiuni (8)	Counties + Bucharest/Județe + București (42)
South Africa	Provinces (9)	-
Tunisia	Grandes régions (7)	Régions (24)

Table A.3. Smallest and largest regional population and surface by country, 2021

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	50	5 361 466	510.1	40 547	0.1	8	8 188 651	183.7	245 909	0.2
Austria	35	1 920 949	4 850.9	20 118	19.9	9	1 920 949	4 850.9	296 010	60.0
Belgium	44	1 229 583	7 590.0	50 476	47.7	3	6 669 426	7 590.0	1 229 583	217.5
Canada	293	2 974 293	4 721.1	708	0.01	13	14 826 276	28.9	39 403	0.02
Chile	56	6 075 403	2 992.8	2 124	0.1	16	8 242 459	538.4	107 737	1.1
Colombia	158	7 834 167	4 794.5	10 409	0.7	33	7 834 167	4 936.5	46 808	0.7
Costa Rica	6	3 189 862	349.2	307 357	39.0	6	3 189 862	349.2	307 357	39.0
Czech Republic	14	1 397 997	2 752.8	293 311	66.9	8	1 704 179	2 752.8	1 110 315	72.0
Denmark	11	903 974	4 592.1	39 660	61.0	5	1 855 084	761.8	590 439	76.5
Estonia	5	613 158	143.4	121 335	13.3	1	1 330 068	30.9	1 330 068	30.9
Finland	19	1 702 678	187.2	30 129	1.9	5	1 702 678	187.2	30 129	6.3
France	101	2 607 879	20 851.6	76 604	3.5	18	12 348 605	1 033.2	288 348	3.5
Germany	401	3 664 088	4 800.7	34 001	35.9	16	17 925 570	4 331.1	680 130	71.4
Greece	52	1 096 665	10 399.0	18 360	10.1	13	3 736 737	986.5	202 371	28.4
Hungary	20	1 723 836	3 380.1	187 574	52.4	8	1 723 836	3 380.1	871 105	63.3
Iceland	8	236 528	226.8	7 108	0.5	2	236 528	228.8	132 264	1.3
Ireland	8	1 423 957	1 541.1	306 702	34.5	3	2 467 483	172.5	884 580	35.4
Israel	6	2 250 600	8 485.5	1 062 600	94.8	6	2 250 600	8 485.5	1 062 600	94.8
Italy	107	4 231 451	2 544.1	81 415	35.8	21	9 981 554	433.1	124 089	38.2
Japan	47	14 010 000	7 315.9	549 000	62.1	10	36 861 000	2 811.2	3 659 000	62.1
Korea	17	13 554 031	15 747.8	365 128	91.3	7	26 054 097	2 225.9	679 882	91.3
Latvia	6	614 618	2 382.2	183 399	12.2	1	1 893 223	29.9	1 893 223	29.9
Lithuania	10	829 983	88.1	90 129	18.6	2	1 965 697	88.1	829 983	36.9
Luxembourg	1	634 730	245.5	634 730	245.5	1	634 730	245.5	634 730	245.5
Mexico	209	8 664 946	7 909.5	8 834	0.7	32	16 992 418	6 298.4	731 391	10.8
Netherlands	40	1 461 412	3 428.0	45 587	142.0	12	3 726 050	1 292.0	385 400	185.2
New Zealand	14	1 715 600	383.3	32 700	1.4	14	1 715 600	383.3	32 700	1.4
Norway	13	1 252 384	1 636.2	0	0.0	7	1 949 394	84.1	0	0.0
Poland	73	1 792 120	3 541.7	184 826	41.1	17	4 450 220	514.7	936 000	57.2
Portugal	25	2 869 033	1 021.0	80 047	13.7	7	3 566 374	1 021.0	242 201	22.5
Slovak Republic	8	827 028	335.0	565 324	68.1	4	1 819 399	335.0	677 024	82.4
Slovenia	12	555 948	238.8	53 254	37.2	2	1 105 046	128.5	1 003 931	89.6
Spain	59	6 755 828	6 001.6	11 475	8.7	19	8 502 216	6 001.6	83 517	25.4
Sweden	21	2 391 990	366.6	60 124	2.6	8	2 391 990	366.6	375 709	3.4
Switzerland	26	1 553 423	5 464.9	16 293	28.3	7	1 895 693	939.2	350 986	105.8
Türkiye	81	15 462 452	2 979.9	81 910	11.3	26	15 462 452	2 979.9	785 265	26.4
United Kingdom	179	1 196 000	17 093.5	22 300	5.7	12	9 217 200	5 774.6	1 895 500	70.4
United States	179	24 161 801	626.7	79 466	0.5	51	39 237 836	4 214.2	578 803	0.5
OECD average	64	3 966 891	4 276.8	151 449	34.4	11	7 567 772	2 026.2	667 223	52.3

Figure A.1. Extended regional typology

Source: Source: Brezzi, M., L. Dijkstra and V. Ruiz (2011), “OECD Extended Regional Typology: The Economic Performance of Remote Rural Regions”, OECD Regional Development Working Papers, 2011/06, OECD Publishing. http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/5kg6z83tw7f4-en.

Figure A.2. Methodology to define the functional urban areas (FUAs)

Source: Dijkstra, L., H. Poelman and P. Veneri (2019), "The EU-OECD definition of a functional urban area", OECD Regional Development Working Papers, No. 2019/11, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/d58cb34d-en.

Figure A.3. Methodology to define the access to metro classification for regions

Source: Fadic, M., et al. (2019), "Classifying small (TL3) regions based on metropolitan population, low density and remoteness", OECD Regional Development Working Papers, No. 2019/06, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/b902cc00-en.

Table A.4. Number of metropolitan areas and share of the national population in metropolitan areas, 2022

Metropolitan areas (FUAs with a population above 250 000 inhabitants)

	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	74	5	7	2	7.9	4	59.1	26
Austria	6	59.7	3	11.1	2	14.8	1	33.8	40.3
Belgium	7	60	2	4.5	4	26.8	1	28.7	40
Canada	16	66.5	4	3.7	7	15.1	5	47.7	33.5
Chile	10	65.5	6	10.9	3	13.4	1	41.2	34.5
Colombia	22	56.8	8	5.4	10	14.9	4	36.5	43.2
Czech Republic	4	37.3	1	3.2	2	13.4	1	20.7	62.7
Germany	67	68.2	39	16.8	20	20.3	8	31	31.8
Denmark	4	54.7	2	12.1	1	9.1	1	33.5	45.3
Spain	26	55.4	13	9.7	9	13.3	4	32.4	44.6
Estonia	1	30.1	1	30.1	0	0	0	0	69.9
Finland	4	47.8	3	19.7	0	0	1	28	52.2
France	46	56.5	29	14.7	14	17.3	3	24.5	43.5
United Kingdom	46	69	25	13.7	15	18	6	37.3	31
Greece	2	42.7	0	0	1	9.8	1	33	57.3
Hungary	5	42.4	4	11.6	0	0	1	30.8	57.6
Ireland	2	49.3	1	8.9	0	0	1	40.4	50.7
Italy	24	40.8	11	6.3	9	10.5	4	24	59.2
Japan	54	78.9	18	5.2	30	19	6	54.6	21.1
Korea	20	80	8	4.9	8	13	4	62	20
Lithuania	2	29.8	1	10.4	1	19.4	0	0	70.2
Luxembourg	1	100	0	0	1	100	0	0	0
Latvia	1	48.5	0	0	1	48.5	0	0	51.5
Mexico	64	61.3	27	7.5	27	18.2	10	35.6	38.7
Netherlands	16	66	11	22.6	3	16.2	2	27.2	34
Norway	4	46.7	3	19.9	1	26.8	0	0	53.3
New Zealand	3	51.5	1	8.8	1	9.8	1	32.9	48.5
Poland	19	42.1	10	9.7	7	17.3	2	15	57.9
Portugal	3	44.3	1	2.6	1	12.4	1	29.3	55.7
Slovak Republic	1	8.3	1	8.3	0	0	0	0	91.7
Slovenia	1	14	1	14	0	0	0	0	86
Sweden	5	45.8	2	5.5	2	17.1	1	23.3	54.2
Switzerland	5	39.6	2	9.9	3	29.7	0	0	60.4
Türkiye	20	43.5	4	1.7	11	11.5	5	30.3	56.5
United States	165	71.9	70	7.5	60	15.4	35	49	28.1