Scope of the register

National Official Register of the Territorial Division of the Country (TERYT) functions on ground of The Law of June 29^th, 1995 on official statistics (Journal of Laws No 88, position 439 with amendments) and the Regulation of the Council of Ministers of December 15th, 1998 on detailed principles of running, using and making available the territorial register and related to it obligations of the state administration agencies and the self-government entities  (Journal of Laws from year 1998 No 157, item 1031 with amendments).

TERYT register contains systems of:

• identifiers and names of units of territorial division,
• identifiers and names of localities,
• statistical regions and census enumeration areas,
• identification of addresses of streets, real estates, buildings and dwellings.

TERYT register identifiers:

• are a binding territorial identification standard for agencies running official registers and information systems of public administration,
• are used in other records, registers and systems regarding territorial units and enable integration of data gathered in these systems,
• can be applied on full or partial range, depending on needs of a given register or system,
• allow generalisation and presentation of social and economical phenomena in cross-sections with a different level of detail i.e.: voivodships, powiats, gminas, city quarters and representations in urban gminas, statistical regions and census enumeration areas, geodetic units used in land and building records, localities and streets, and also in division for towns and villages.

The geographic and cartography documentation (maps and situation sketches) is used for running of the territorial division register. It includes:

• course of unit borders:
  • of territorial division - of voivodships, powiats, gminas, towns, quarters, representations,
  • of statistical division - statistical regions and census enumeration areas,
  • of division used in evidence of land and buildings - geodetic units;
• names of localities and streets;
• buildings and their ordinal numbers.

Systems of TERYT register:

1. System of identifiers and names of territorial division units TERC

   System contains identifiers and names of units in the basic three-level territorial division of the country and is built on hierarchical numeration:

   • voivodships,
   • powiats,
   • gminas.

   The system distinguishes with separate identifiers:

   • cities with powiat status,
   • urban, rural and urban-rural gminas,
   • towns and rural areas in urban-rural gminas,
   • quarters and representations in urban gminas.

2. System of identifiers and localities names SIMC

   System contains:

   • official names of localities,
   • permanent, unique locality identifiers,
   • typical descriptions of localities,
   • territorial appurtenance of a locality to gmina, powiat and voivodship.

3. System of statistical regions and census enumeration areas BREC

   System contains identifiers of a division that was created for the purpose of population and housing censuses and conduct of sample surveys.

   • census enumeration area is a spatial unit distinguished for the purpose of population and housing censuses and other statistical surveys on base of the number of dwellings and population
   • statistical region is a spatial unit of statistical data aggregation composed of few, not more than nine census enumeration areas.

   During inter-census periods BREC system is the sampling frame for demographic and social surveys.

4. System for identification of street addresses, real estate, buildings and dwellings NOBC

   System contains building and dwelling addresses, in configuration of statistical regions and census enumeration area.

   On ground of system bases:

   • initial documentation for national population and housing censuses is prepared, in form of address specifications of buildings and dwellings,
   • samples are drawn and addresses of dwellings selected for sample surveys are established.

    5.   The central catalogue of streets ULIC

Within the system of the address identification of streets, real properties, buildings and dwellings (NOBC), a central catalogue of streets (ULIC) is maintained, including street names according to regulations conferring those names and their identifiers, created through the alphabetical listing of street names in the whole country.

The street catalogue makes it possible to locate a street in a given town and gmina, and, in rural areas, also to locate a given locality in a rural gmina.

The names provided in the ULIC catalogue should be used in other systems, together with the following designation: ul. [street], al. [avenue], pl. [square], rynek [market], skwer [square]. If, however, the catalogue is used for printing addresses, for instance on envelopes, in letters or certificates, using both the designation and the name can sometimes lead to entries such as ”market, the Old Market”, “roundabout, the ONZ Roundabout”, “avenue, Szucha Avenue,” etc.
In connection with this, it is recommended to omit the designation on a regular basis when printing an address in the cases when:

• the designation is the same as the first word of the name [in Polish],
• the designation is classified as “other” – the word should also not be printed on envelopes or certificates.

The presented guidelines are consistent with the information included in the TERYT official register (basic scope). Moreover, the SIMC, BREC and NOBC systems include additional information constituting the statistical part of the register (extended scope). The TERC and ULIC systems do not contain a statistical component.

TERYT register is actualised with a predefined frequency:

• systems: of identifiers and names of territorial division units, identifiers and localities names, central catalogue of streets and ordinal numeration of real estate and buildings - on a current basis,
• systems: of statistical regions, census enumeration areas and street addresses, real estate, buildings and dwellings with regard to:

growth and loss of buildings - quarterly,

division into statistical regions and census enumeration areas - at least once a year.

The NTS system

The Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistical Purposes (NTS) is related to the TERYT register - a system of identifiers and names of TERC territorial division units.

The legal basis for introducing the system is Regulation (EC) No. 1059/2003 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 May 2003 on the establishment of a common classification of territorial units for statistics (NUTS) (OJ L 154 of 21.06.2003, page 1; OJ Special Polish edition, chapter 14, vol. 1, page 196, as amended). Specific regulations on the number and scope of established levels of units and the creation of their symbols are included in the Decree of the Council of Ministers on the introduction of the Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistical Purposes (NTS) (Journal of Laws of 2007 No. 214 item 1573, as amended).

The NTS classification is based on the three-tier division of the country into voivodships, powiats and gminas on the basis of which two additional non-administrative levels were established, i.e. regions and subregions. Overall, the classification covers 5 levels, of which:

• 3 levels are identified as regional:
  Level 1 – regions,
  Level 2 – voivodships,
  Level 3 – subregions,

• and 2  as local:
  Level 4 – powiats,
  Level 5 – gminas.

Revision of the system in terms of territorial units and regions (NTS 1) and subregions (NTS 3) is carried out on an ongoing basis.