We propose an information-theoretic framework to quantify multipartite correlations in classical and quantum systems, answering questions such as: what is the amount of seven-partite correlations in a given state of ten particles? We identify measures of genuine multipartite correlations, i.e. statistical dependencies which cannot be ascribed to bipartite correlations, satisfying a set of desirable properties. Inspired by ideas developed in complexity science, we then introduce the concept of weaving to classify states which display different correlation patterns, but cannot be distinguished by correlation measures. The weaving of a state is defined as the weighted sum of correlations of every order. Weaving measures are good descriptors of the complexity of correlation structures in multipartite systems. Correlations describe global properties which cannot be inferred from the features of the system parts, e.g. phases of many-body systems [5]. They are also resources. Entanglement, a kind of quantum correlation, enables speed-up in quantum information processing [6]. Yet, the very notion of genuine multipartite correlations still generates discussion [7]. There is no consistent way to quantify dependencies which do not manifest bipartite correlations, encoding joint properties of k > 2 particles instead, while witnesses of multipartite entanglement of at least order k have been proposed [8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15]. A further problem is that computing correlations is not always sufficient to fully describe multipartite correlation patterns. Equally correlated networks of multivariate variables can display different structures and properties [16,17]. Also, quantum states can be correlated in inherently inequivalent ways [18][19][20]. Here we propose a framework to describe genuine multipartite correlations in classical and quantum systems. We identify distance-based measures which satisfy a set of desirable properties when parts of the systems are added or discarded, and local operations are performed. We show that adopting the relative entropy allows for simplifying computations and meeting even stronger constraints. We then introduce the notion of weaving to classify multipartite states by studying how correlations scale with their order. The weaving of a state is given by the weighted sum of genuine multipartite correlations of any order, inheriting the properties of correlation measures. We compute the weaving of correlated classical and quantum states. In such cases, states which have equal total correlations or highest order correlations, but display a different correlation pattern, take different weaving values.