gisco_get_communes: Communes dataset

In giscoR: Download Map Data from GISCO API - Eurostat

Communes dataset

Description

This dataset shows pan European administrative boundaries down to commune level. Communes are equivalent to Local Administrative Units, see gisco_get_lau().

Usage

gisco_get_communes(
  year = 2016,
  epsg = 4326,
  cache = deprecated(),
  update_cache = FALSE,
  cache_dir = NULL,
  verbose = FALSE,
  spatialtype = "RG",
  country = NULL,
  ext = "shp"
)

Arguments

year	character string or number. Release year of the file. One of \Sexpr[stage=render,results=rd]{giscoR:::db_values("communes", "year",TRUE)}.
epsg	character string or number. Projection of the map: 4-digit EPSG code. One of: "4326": WGS84. "3035": ETRS89 / ETRS-LAEA. "3857": Pseudo-Mercator.
cache	. These functions always caches the result due to the size. See See Caching strategies section in gisco_set_cache_dir().
update_cache	logical. Should the cached file be refreshed?. Default is FALSE. When set to TRUE it would force a new download.
cache_dir	character string. A path to a cache directory. See Caching strategies section in gisco_set_cache_dir().
verbose	logical. If TRUE displays informational messages.
spatialtype	character string. Type of geometry to be returned. Options available are: "RG": Regions - MULTIPOLYGON/POLYGON object. "LB": Labels - POINT object. "BN": Boundaries - LINESTRING object. Note that argument country would be only applied when spatialtype is "RG" or "LB".
country	character vector of country codes. It could be either a vector of country names, a vector of ISO3 country codes or a vector of Eurostat country codes. See also countrycode::countrycode().
ext	character. Extension of the file (default "shp"). One of \Sexpr[stage=render,results=rd]{giscoR:::db_values("communes", "ext",TRUE)}.

Details

The Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics (NUTS) and the LAU nomenclature are hierarchical classifications of statistical regions that together subdivide the EU economic territory into regions of five different levels (NUTS 1, 2 and 3 and LAU , respectively, moving from larger to smaller territorial units).

The dataset is based on EuroBoundaryMap from EuroGeographics. Geographical extent covers the European Union 28, EFTA countries, and candidate countries. The scale of the dataset is 1:100 000.

The LAU classification is not covered by any legislative act.

Value

A sf object.

Note

Please check the download and usage provisions on gisco_attributions().

Source

https://gisco-services.ec.europa.eu/distribution/v2/.

Copyright: https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/gisco/geodata/administrative-units.

See Also

gisco_get_lau().

See gisco_bulk_download() to perform a bulk download of datasets.

Other administrative units datasets: gisco_get_countries(), gisco_get_postal_codes()

Examples

ire_comm <- gisco_get_communes(spatialtype = "LB", country = "Ireland")

if (!is.null(ire_comm)) {
  library(ggplot2)

  ggplot(ire_comm) +
    geom_sf(shape = 21, col = "#009A44", size = 0.5) +
    labs(
      title = "Communes in Ireland",
      subtitle = "Year 2016",
      caption = gisco_attributions()
    ) +
    theme_void() +
    theme(text = element_text(
      colour = "#009A44",
      family = "serif", face = "bold"
    ))
}

giscoR documentation built on Dec. 10, 2025, 9:08 a.m.