NUTS 2024 Classification

The NUTS 2024 Classification is the most recent revision of the Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics, adopted by the European Commission and applicable from 1 January 2024. It replaces the NUTS 2021 Classification and reflects changes to administrative boundaries, regional reorganisations, and updated population thresholds across EU member states since the previous revision.

What is the NUTS 2024 Classification?

Eurostat reviews and updates the NUTS classification every three years, as required by Regulation (EC) No 1059/2003. The 2024 revision involved changes in several member states where administrative reorganisation had altered the geographic boundaries or nomenclature of existing NUTS units. Each revision produces a new official list of NUTS codes at all three sub-national levels, a correspondence table mapping changed codes to their predecessors, and updated geographic boundary files for use in maps and spatial data tools.

For the NUTS 2024 revision, Eurostat processed change requests submitted by member states through the formal amendment procedure set out in the regulation. Changes included the addition, removal, and renaming of regional units, as well as adjustments to the level at which certain territories are classified within the hierarchy. The official NUTS 2024 regulation and boundary datasets are published on the Eurostat website and in the Official Journal of the European Union.

The total counts in the NUTS 2024 Classification are: 98 Level 1 regions, 242 Level 2 regions, and 1,166 Level 3 regions across the 27 EU member states. These figures reflect a modest change from the NUTS 2021 counts, primarily driven by administrative mergers and splits in a small number of member states.

Why the NUTS 2024 Classification matters for bidders

Procurement databases and tender portals on TED updated their place-of-performance code lists to reflect NUTS 2024 from 1 January 2024 onwards. Contract notices published after that date use the 2024 codes. This has a practical implication for any bidder or analytics tool that relies on saved geographic searches or historical code mappings: codes that changed between the 2021 and 2024 revisions may produce no results or incorrect matches if the search system has not been updated.

Bidders using external tender-monitoring tools or internal databases should verify that the NUTS codes used in their saved searches, category tagging, and supplier-registration profiles reflect the current 2024 classification. Correspondence tables published by Eurostat show exactly which codes changed, making the update process systematic rather than a guessing exercise.

For EU structural fund purposes, the NUTS 2024 revision also affects regional eligibility classifications. If a region's boundaries changed, its GDP-per-capita statistics may shift, potentially altering whether it qualifies as a less-developed, transition, or more-developed region under Cohesion Policy. Such changes feed through to the co-financing rates applicable to publicly funded contracts in those regions.

Example

A legal services firm tracking public sector contract opportunities in Croatia uses NUTS 2021 codes in its monitoring system. Following the NUTS 2024 revision, some Croatian NUTS Level 3 codes were renamed to reflect changes in the county administrative structure. The firm's saved searches return zero results for those codes until it updates them to the NUTS 2024 equivalents using the official Eurostat correspondence table. Using the NUTS code structure reference alongside the correspondence table, the update takes less than an hour and restores full search coverage.

Frequently Asked Questions

When was the NUTS 2024 Classification adopted?

The regulation establishing the NUTS 2024 Classification was adopted by the European Commission and published in the Official Journal of the EU. The classification became applicable for statistical and procurement purposes from 1 January 2024. Eurostat publishes the full reference tables, shapefiles, and correspondence tables on its website under the NUTS section of the regional statistics portal.

How do I find out which codes changed between NUTS 2021 and NUTS 2024?

Eurostat publishes a correspondence table with every revision. This table lists every code that was added, removed, renamed, or restructured, and maps the old code to the new one (or indicates that a unit was merged into another). The table is available as a downloadable spreadsheet from the Eurostat NUTS reference database.

Will the NUTS 2024 codes be replaced again, and when?

Yes. The triennial review cycle means a NUTS 2027 revision is expected, with member states submitting change requests through the formal procedure during 2025-2026 and the new classification becoming applicable from 1 January 2027. Bidders and procurement systems should plan for periodic updates on this cycle.