meergrensdata

Meergrensdata refers to data that concerns more than one sovereign state or that originates from activities crossing international borders. It is especially relevant for cross-border regions where the interactions between neighboring countries—such as labor markets, trade, commuting, and shared infrastructure—shape regional development. The term is used in statistics, planning, and policy analysis to understand how border dynamics affect economies, societies, and environments.

This type of data spans several domains. Demographic and labor data for cross-border regions; trade and transport statistics on border crossings, value of goods, and logistic flows; mobility patterns from travel surveys or transit data; environmental and energy data shared across watershed or ecological borders; and health or safety indicators that require coordination across borders. Geospatial data on borders, border crossings and cross-border infrastructures are frequently central.

Sources include national statistical offices such as the Netherlands’ Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek (CBS), Belgium’s Statbel, and Germany’s Destatis, as well as Eurostat and regional authorities. Cross-border cooperation bodies and data portals—often supported by EU programs like Interreg or euro-regional groups (for example Euregio)—also contribute. Data sharing is governed by national privacy laws and the EU General Data Protection Regulation, and is guided by standards for harmonization and interoperability, such as INSPIRE.

Applications include policy evaluation, regional planning, transport and infrastructure development, cross-border health surveillance, and emergency response coordination. Challenges include fragmentation across institutions, differing statistical methodologies, timeliness, language barriers, and varying legal restrictions on data access. Ensuring data quality, comparability, and privacy requires formal data-sharing agreements, common terminology, and interoperable data infrastructures. Effective use of meergrensdata supports more integrated regional governance and evidence-based decision-making in border regions.

See also: Euregio, Interreg, Eurostat, INSPIRE, cross-border cooperation.