For purposes of the Moody's Analytics estimated and forecast data products, we have created geography codes for metropolitan areas in Belgium. Belgium itself has no official definition. Instead, we have utilized definitions published in the final report of the ESPON Project 1.4.3. The three metro areas are:
The ESPON study considered metropolitan areas in 29 European countries. ESPON 1.1.1 produced a list of functional urban areas (FUAs) based on population in standardized NUTS-type areas; ESPON 1.4.3 made corrections to this list and added the concept of a morphological urban area (MUA), or core, such that a FUA consists of a core plus a surrounding labor pool. This is akin to the OMB's methodology for U.S. core-based statistical areas. ESPON's definitions are available for all Belgian urbanized areas, are consistent across them, and extend to other countries.
References:
Table 1 of 1. Metropolitan areas in Belgium. Following ESPON's lead, we define each of our metropolitan areas mainly as aggregates of districts (NUTS 3 / arrondissements), and sometimes regions (NUTS 1) and provinces (NUTS 2 / provincies).
Belgium has a national geo code of IBEL, all codes for its geographic subdivisions use IBEL as a prefix, and all Moody’s Analytics metro area codes feature the letter “M.” Each of the three areas is identified as IBEL(underscore)M(three letters), and may be retrieved in bulk with the basket geo wild card IBEL_M^^^.
|
Description |
Geo Level |
NUTS |
IBEL_MANT |
Antwerp |
MA metro area |
|
IBEL_ANT |
Antwerpen |
District |
NUTS 3 |
IBEL_MEC |
Mechelen |
District |
NUTS 3 |
IBEL_MBRX |
Brussels |
MA metro area |
|
IBEL_AAL |
Aalst |
District |
NUTS 3 |
IBEL_BRUX |
Bruxelles-Capitale |
Region |
NUTS 1 |
IBEL_BW |
Brabant Wallon |
Province |
NUTS 2 |
IBEL_DEN |
Dendermonde |
District |
NUTS 3 |
IBEL_HVI |
Halle-Vilvoorde |
District |
NUTS 3 |
IBEL_MLIE |
Liège |
MA metro area |
|
IBEL_HUY |
Huy |
District |
NUTS 3 |
IBEL_LIE |
Liège |
District |
NUTS 3 |
IBEL_WAR |
Waremme |
District |
NUTS 3 |
|