No. The common definitions are in place in order to ensure consistency in the data provided by all Member States. The DEGURBA (DEGree of URBAnisation) classification should therefore be used for the indicator on participants “from rural areas”.
The monitoring system needs to collect information on the place of residence of the participant. This should then be matched with the LAU2 codes used in the DEGURBA dataset published by Eurostat to determine if the participant is living in a rural area.
The DEGURBA classification establishes three categories of area:
- (Code 1) Densely populated area (cities or large urban area)
- (Code 2) Intermediate density area (towns and suburbs or small urban area)
- (Code 3) Thinly populated area (rural areas).
The common output indicator “from rural areas” should record participants residing in areas classified in the Eurostat DEGURBA data as 3 –Thinly populated area.
You can find information about the DEGURBA classification at: http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/ramon/miscellaneous/index.cfm?TargetUrl=DSP_DEGURBA.