Access to services - FUAs

This dataset provides an indicator of accessibility to essential services in Functional Urban Areas (FUAs). The indicator is defined as the share of the FUA population that lives within a specific walking travel time to at least one pharmacy, primary school, or childcare facility.

Data sources and methodology

The indicator uses:

• service location data from national sources;


• OpenStreetMap (OSM) road network data;


• the R5 routing engine and its r5py Python wrapper (Fink, C., 2022); and


• the Global Human Settlement Layer's population grid for 2020 (Schiavina, M. et al., 2023).

A detailed description of the methodology and data sources can be found in the annex of Regions and Cities at a Glance 2024.

Defining FUAs and cities

The OECD, in cooperation with the EU, has developed a harmonised definition of functional urban areas (FUAs) to capture the economic and functional reach of cities based on daily commuting patterns (OECD, 2012). FUAs consist of:

1. A city – defined by urban centres in the degree of urbanisation, adapted to the closest local administrative units to define a city.


2. A commuting zone – including all local areas where at least 15% of employed residents work in the city.

The delineation process includes:

• Assigning municipalities surrounded by a single FUA to that FUA.


• Excluding non-contiguous municipalities.

The definition identifies 1 285 FUAs and 1 402 cities in all OECD member countries except Costa Rica and three accession countries.

Cite this dataset

OECD Regions, cities and local areas database (Access to services - FUAs), http://oe.cd/geostats

Further information

• OECD Local Data Portal


• OECD Regions and Cities at a Glance

For questions and/or comments, please email [email protected]