1. Introduction  
2. Data  
2.1. Photometric data  
2.2. Stellar mass  
2.3. Effective radii and morphological parameters  
2.4. Initial sample selection  
3. Stellar mass re-estimation  
4. Final selection of red nugget sample  
5. Final catalogue of VIPERS red nuggets - properties  
6. Discussion and results  
6.1. Influence of compactness criteria on sample size  
6.2. Evolution of number densities  
7. Summary