definition
strict definition
NUTS 1
The largest tier of the European statistical region classification, above the level used for most reporting.
NUTS 1 is the coarsest of the three tiers of the European Union's classification of territorial units for statistics. A member state is divided into a handful of them: Germany uses its federal states, France its former large regions, and smaller countries form a single unit.
The tier exists for statistics and has no government. Where its boundary happens to match a real administrative unit, that unit is a region in its own right and this classification is an attribute of it.
The classification is revised every few years and codes can move between versions, so a value carries the version it came from.