gisco_get_communes: Communes dataset

In giscoR: Download 'Eurostat' 'GISCO' Spatial Data

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	A character string or numeric value with the release year of the file. One of \Sexpr[stage=render,results=rd]{giscoR:::db_values("communes", "year",TRUE)}.
epsg	A character string or numeric value with the coordinate reference system as a 4-digit EPSG code. One of: "4326": WGS84. "3035": ETRS89 / ETRS-LAEA. "3857": Pseudo-Mercator.
cache	. These functions always cache the result because of its size. See Caching strategies section in gisco_set_cache_dir().
update_cache	A logical value indicating whether to refresh the cached file. Defaults to FALSE. When set to TRUE, it forces a new download.
cache_dir	A character string with a path to a cache directory. See Caching strategies section in gisco_set_cache_dir().
verbose	A logical value. If TRUE displays informational messages.
spatialtype	A character string with the type of geometry to return. Options available are: "RG": Regions - MULTIPOLYGON/POLYGON object. "LB": Labels - POINT object. "BN": Boundaries - LINESTRING object. Argument country is only applied when spatialtype is "RG" or "LB".
country	A character vector of country codes. It can be either a vector of country names, a vector of ISO 3166-1 alpha-3 country codes or a vector of Eurostat country codes. See also countrycode::countrycode().
ext	A character value with the 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, moving from larger to smaller territorial units: NUTS 1, 2 and 3 and LAU.

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

Check the download and usage provisions in 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.

Administrative unit 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 June 17, 2026, 9:10 a.m.