This dataset provides an indicator of public transport performance in Functional Urban Areas (FUAs). The indicator is defined as the ratio of accessibility, defined as the number of people reachable within 30 minutes by public transport to proximity, defined as the number of people in the area that could be reached in a 30-minute traffic-free car journey.
Data sources and methodology
The methodology follows the OECD-International Transport Forum/European Commission Urban Access Framework (UAF) (ITF, 2019). The indicator uses:
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:
- A city – defined by urban centres in the degree of urbanisation, adapted to the closest local administrative units to define a city.
- 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 (Transport performance - FUAs), http://oe.cd/geostats
Further information
For questions and/or comments, please email [email protected]