The NUTS classification was created and developed according to the following principles: (a) The NUTS favours institutional breakdowns. Different criteria may be used in subdividing national territory into regions. These are normally split between normative and analytic criteria: normative regions; analytical (or functional) regions; institutional divisions. (b) The NUTS favours regional units of a general character. A territorial unit specific to certain fields of activity (mining regions, rail traffic regions, farming regions, labour-market regions, etc.) may sometimes be used in certain Member States. NUTS excludes specific territorial units and local units in favour of regional units of a general nature. (c) The NUTS is a five-level hierarchical classification (three regional levels and two local levels). Since this is a hierarchical classification, the NUTS subdivides each Member State into a whole number of NUTS 1 regions, each of which is in turn subdivided into a whole number of NUTS 2 regions and so on.