The concepts described on these pages are words and expressions used in statistics with a specific, limited meaning. In everyday speech the word may have a different meaning. In connection with each definition you can find information about which sets of statistics use the concept.
If you are looking for statistical figures, go from the definition to the statistics page.
Locality
All clusters of buildings with at least 200 inhabitants where the distance between buildings does not exceed 200 metres are defined as localities or urban settlements. In defining localities, not only residential but also business, office and other buildings used as workplaces are taken into account. Administrative regional divisions do not have an effect on the formation of localities.
Statistics using the definition
Validity of the definition
- 1 January 1900 - 18 October 2011
Source organisation
- Tilastokeskus
An urban settlement is a cluster of buildings with at least 200 inhabitants. The delimitation is based on the population information of the previous year. Urban settlements are defined and delimited by the Finnish Environment Institute using geographic information methods that utilise the building and population data of Statistics Finland’s 250 m x 250 m grid data. The population size of grids containing buildings and their neighbouring grids, as well as the number of buildings and their floor area, are reviewed in the definition. From the uniform clusters of dwellings generated in the definition, the ones with at least 200 inhabitants are selected. All new urban settlements generated in the definition are named and numbered at Statistics Finland. In some years certain urban settlements may cease to meet the definition of urban settlement and thus disappear from the classification of urban settlements, merge into other urban settlements or withdraw from them. Administrative regional divisions do not affect the formation of urban settlements, and urban settlements do not follow municipal boundaries.
Statistics using the definition
Validity of the definition
- Valid
Source organisation
- Tilastokeskus
Jaa