United Nations Statistics Division

The United Nations Statistics Division collects, compiles and disseminates official demographic and social statistics on a wide range of topics. Data have been collected since 1948 through a set of questionnaires dispatched annually to over 230 national statistical offices and have been published in the Demographic Yearbook collection. The Demographic Yearbook disseminates statistics on population size and composition, births, deaths, marriage and divorce, as well as respective rates, on an annual basis. The Demographic Yearbook census datasets cover a wide range of additional topics including economic activity, educational attainment, household characteristics, housing characteristics, ethnicity, language, foreign-born and foreign population. The available Population and Housing Censuses' datasets reported to UNSD for the censuses conducted worldwide since 1995, are now available in UNdata. This latest update includes several datasets on international travel and migration inflows and outflows, and on incoming and departing international migrants by several characteristics, as reported by the national authorities to the UN Statistics Division for the reference years 2010 to the present as available.

The National Accounts Main Aggregates Database presents a series of analytical national accounts tables from 1970 onwards for more than 200 countries and areas of the world. It is the product of a global cooperation effort between the Economic Statistics Branch of the United Nations Statistics Division, international statistical agencies and the national statistical services of these countries and is developed in accordance with the recommendation of the Statistical Commission at its first session in 1947 that the Statistics Division should publish regularly the most recent available data on national accounts for as many countries and areas as possible. The database is updated in December of each year with newly available national accounts data for all countries and areas.

Different series numbers (column “Series”) are used to store different time-series versions of national accounts statistics. Series numbers with two digits (10,20) refer to data compiled following the SNA 1968 national accounts methodology, while series numbers with three digits (100, 200, etc) refer to data compiled using the SNA 1993 national accounts methodology whereas series number with four digits (1000, 1100) refer to data compiled using the SNA 2008 national accounts methodology. In addition to different methodologies, different series numbers are used when data are reported in different currencies, fiscal years, or by different sources. Furthermore, data are stored under a new series number whenever there are significant changes in compilation practices which make the time series no longer comparable. Note: Ethiopia [upto 1993] and Ethiopia [from 1993] merged to get Ethiopia, Similarly Sudan (upto 2011) is combined with Sudan.

The CDS (the Common Data Set) is a joint effort by Eurostat, OECD, UNSD, UNCTAD and WTO to reconcile their time series on merchandise trade statistics, using international standards as a benchmark. Each agency is in charge of supplying figures for a predefined set of reporting economies (see Data Providing Agencies and Sources). Reconciliations, co-ordinated by WTO, consist of scrutinising significant differences between the agencies' data to determine the best value. In many instances, this results in finding an agreement on substitution values and estimates. Thus, the CDS database gives access to statistics and documentation of both officially reported and reconciled series. It covers annual total merchandise export and import values of over 200 economies for the period 1995 to 2011.

The United Nations Industrial Commodity Statistics Database provides annual statistics on the production of major industrial commodities by country. Data are provided in terms of physical quantities as well as monetary value. The online database covers the years 1995 to 2013. Additional historical data is available on request, based on a different product list, for the years 1950-2003.

The Energy Statistics Database contains comprehensive energy statistics on the production, trade, conversion and final consumption of primary and secondary; conventional and non-conventional; and new and renewable sources of energy. The Energy Statistics dataset, covering the period from 1990 onwards, is available at UNdata