After outlining the development of regional classification in the European Union, two recent regional and two recent local classifications created by the European Commission using the population grid are explained. Each regional classification is linked to a local one. The first pair is the urban–rural regional typology and the (local) degree of urbanization. The second consists of the city and commuting zone (local) definition and the metro region. The grid concepts and the four classifications have been applied to all the European Union, Iceland, Norway, Switzerland, and Liechtenstein. Eurostat collects and disseminates data using four of these classifications. These data are important inputs for policy analysis, in particular of urban and rural issues.
Urban accessibility and congestion indicators allow us to benchmark cities. If these indicators are also available at a fine resolution, we can compare different neighbourhoods within a city. We present a dataset of different accessibility indicators for all urban areas with more than 250 thousand people in the EU27, the UK, Switzerland and Norway. Each city is analysed by means of a population grid of 500 m by 500 m and represented by a wider area covering both the densely populated urban centre and the commuting zone. To capture congestion, we measure accessibility for each grid cell at different times of the day that correspond to different traffic conditions using the detailed network and congestion information provided by TomTom.
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