The source of every indicator is presented in each graphical presentation. Data presented on the Euregional Health Atlas comes from regional statistics or projects conducted in the EMR/ERMN. Depending on data availability, different geographical levels can be selected within the dashboards on the Euregional Health Atlas. Data presented in ‘Demograhics and Health’ mostly originates from Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union. Eurostat collects, compiles and publishes statistics for the European Union and are summarised based on the European Statistical System.
Geographical levels
The following table describes the different geographical levels presented in the Euregional Health Atlas:
Background information on geographical levels
EU Member States are usually compared with each other in statistical presentations, but in reality it can be difficult to compare countries in terms of inhabitants or population density. Therefore, analyzing data at a subnational or regional level is often more meaningful since such an analysis may highlight disparities between different (border-) regions [1].
At the heart of regional statistics is NUTS (Nomenclature des unités territoriales statistiques; Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics) — the EU’s classification of territorial units for statistics. This regional classification for EU Member States is based on a hierarchy of regions and subdivides each Member State into regions that are classified according to three different levels, covering NUTS levels 1, 2 and 3 from larger to smaller areas. The NUTS standard defines minimum and maximum population thresholds for the size of the NUTS regions [2].
The NUTS levels do not always fit the administrative areas that are generally used within countries. Therefore, health regions and border regions are added to the Euregional Health Atlas, with the purpose that organisations on local level have detailed information about their specific region.
For specific indicators (number of foreigners) the “Grensdata” provided by Statistics Netherlands has been used [3]. The causes of death, as classified via the International Classification of Diseases 10 (ICD-10), were collected on a regional level per country. In Belgium the Statbel numbers were used, in Germany the Landesdatenbank data, and in the Netherlands CBS data.