Based on NUTS 3 level data for the EU parts of the BSR (thus excluding NW Russia, Belarus and Norway), some 225 m² of land per capita was converted from green or agricultural space into artificial land during the year 2006. This data is based on the interregional median in the BSR, not its average. The corresponding value for the peer regions was 210 m² / inhabitant in the NSR and as little as 197 m² in the Alpine Space. The rate of change in the BSR thus exceeded that of its peer regions. However, this indicator does not take into account the amount of available un-built surface per inhabitant, and in such a comparison, the BSR would most likely exceed its peer regions by horse lengths. Indeed, when examining which types of regions have the highest new soil sealing rate in the BSR, particularly semi-sparsely populated agricultural regions stand out, whereas densely built urban areas score very low on this indicator.