The Spanish Shopping Centers and Retail Parks Directory is a census, that is, a survey of all elements constituting a population. In this case, the population is made up of Shopping Centres, defined as follows:
A Shopping Centre is a group of independent retail and other commercial establishments planned and developed by one or more entities owned and managed as a single property. The center's size and orientation are generally determined by the market characteristics of the trade area served by the center.
Shopping Centre data is obtained through a postal survey addressed to the shopping centre managers or to the managing company of the centres.
The information obtained results in several statistical summaries based on geographic (Autonomous Communities) and centre type criteria. For the centre type criteria, the Pan- European Shopping Centre Standard Classification agreed between ICSC Europe and all European shopping centre councils, is used. The European standard was elaborated by ICSC’s European Research Group, and the following categories are used:
| VL | Very Large | Shopping Centre with a GLA in excess of 79,999 sqm |
| L | Large | Shopping Centre with a GLA between 40,000 sqm and 79,999 sqm |
| ME | Medium | Shopping Centre with a GLA between 20,000 sqm and 39,999 sqm |
| SM | Small | Shopping Centre with a GLA between 5,000 sqm and 19,999 sqm |
| BH | Based Hypermarket | Shopping Centre based around a hypermarket |
| SG | Shopping Gallery | Urban shopping gallery with a GLA of up to 4,999 sqm, which merits emphasis due to its characteristics |
| RT | Retail Park | A consistently designed, planned and managed scheme that comprises mainly medium and large scale specialist retailers. |
| FO | Factory Outlets | A consistently designed, planned and managed scheme with a separate store units, where manufacturers and retailers sell merchandise at discounted prices that may be surplus stock, prior-season or slow selling. |
| LC | Leisure-based | The Pan-European framework does not include Urban Shopping Galleries, as it only recognizes Centres with a GLA of 5.000 sqm or more. Therefore, the AECC no longer includes them in the Shopping Centre statistics. |
GLA (Gross Leasable Area): Includes the surface area for sales, warehouses, offices and private technical facilities. It does not include the Mall, parking, loading/unloading bays or shared areas.
Built surface area: The entire surface area occupied by buildings, including indoor car parks.
Jobs: In a Shopping Centre, the centre management, staff assigned through cleaning, security and maintenance contracts, etc. In stores, jobs created directly by the trading activity.
Commercial Mix: Files on Large and Very Large shopping centres include a graph, dividing up the GLA into the following commercial activities:
The fact sheets on the rest of the Centres only state the commercial mix (the first five activities altogether) and leisure/Dining.
