A method is provided for rate matching a number of input bits in a time interval to a fixed number of output bits in the time interval, whereby the input bits consist of a set of at least two different bit classes, each of the classes having a certain number of bits in the time interval, whereby the rate matching is performed in two rate matching stages, whereby the first rate matching stage operates only on a selection out of the set of different bit classes, thus establishing a proportion between the number of bits of the different classes, and the second rate matching stage operates on all bit classes such that the proportion is exactly or approximately maintained after the second rate matching stage and the fixed number of output bits consisting of bits of the different bit classes is achieved.