The United Nations Commodity Trade Statistics Database (UN Comtrade) stores more than 1 billion trade data records from 1962. Over 140 reporter countries provide the United Nations Statistics Division with their annual international trade statistics detailed by commodities and partner countries. These data are subsequently transformed into the United Nations Statistics Division standard format with consistent coding and valuation using the UN/OECD CoprA internal processing system.

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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. For data prior to 1990, please refer to http://unstats.un.org/unsd/energy/edbase.htm.

Note that there are changes to the database compared to the previous update, details of which can be found here: http://unstats.un.org/unsd/energy/Energy-Questionnaire-Guidelines.pdf

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The Environment Statistics Database contains selected water and waste statistics by country. Statistics on water and waste are based on official statistics supplied by national statistical offices and/or ministries of environment (or equivalent institutions) in countries in response to the biennial UNSD/UNEP Questionnaire on Environment Statistics. They were complemented by data on EU and OECD member and partner countries from OECD and Eurostat. Environment statistics is still in an early stage of development in many countries, and data are often sparse. The statistics selected here are those of relatively good quality and geographic coverage. The online database currently covers the years 1990, 1995 to 2009. For information on definitions, data quality and other important metadata, please check UNSD Environmental Indicator tables.

FAOSTAT provides access to over 3 million time-series and cross sectional data relating to food and agriculture. FAOSTAT contains data for 200 countries and more than 200 primary products and inputs in its core data set. The national version of FAOSTAT, CountrySTAT, is being implemented in about 20 countries and three regions. It offers a two-way bridge amongst sub-national, national, regional and international statistics on food and agriculture.

Gender Info 2007 is a global database of gender statistics and indicators on a wide range of policy areas, including: population, families, health, education, work, and political participation. It can be used by governments, international organizations, advocacy groups, researchers and others in need of statistics for planning, analysis, advocacy and awareness-raising. Users will find in Gender Info an easy-to-use tool to shed light on gender issues through customizable tables, graphs and maps. It is an initiative of the United Nations Statistics Division, produced in collaboration with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).

This database is no longer updated. Please visit http://unstats.un.org/unsd/gender/data.html for other Gender Statistics.

The Global Indicator Database is comprised of a wide range of important statistics and metadata drawn from the United Nations, UN agencies and other international sources. It covers key economic, social, financial and development topics, broadly based on the structure of the UN Statistical Yearbook (SYB). Series are grouped under the headings agriculture, forestry and fishing, balance of payments, culture and communication, development assistance, education, environment, financial statistics, gender, international finance, international merchandise trade, international tourism and transport, labour force, manufacturing, national accounts and industrial production, nutrition, population, wages and prices.

The Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Inventory Data contains the most recently submitted information, covering the period from 1990 to the latest available year, to the extent the data have been provided. The GHG data contain information on anthropogenic emissions by sources and removals by sinks of the six principal GHGs (carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), perfluorocarbons (PFCs), and sulphur hexafluoride (SF6)) that are not controlled by the Montreal Protocol.

GHG emission inventories are developed by Parties to the Convention using scientific and methodological guidance from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), such as Revised Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories (1996), IPCC Good Practice Guidance and Uncertainty Management in National Greenhouse Gas Inventories (2000) and IPCC Good Practice Guidance on Land Use, Land-use Change and Forestry (2003).

The Human Development Report is a reliable source and an alternative perspective on critical issues for human development worldwide. Featuring the Human Development Index, every report presents agenda-setting data and analysis and calls international attention to issues and policy options that put people at the center of strategies to meet the challenges of development today - economic, social, political, and cultural.

Definitions/explanations:
    Human Development Index
    Inequality-adjusted Human Development Index
    Gender Inequality Index
    Gender Development Index
    Multidimensional Poverty Index

Please click here for Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
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The Indicators on Women and Men provides the latest statistics and indicators on women and men in six specific fields of concern: population, women and men in families, health, education, work and political decision making. The statistics and indicators refer to the latest year for which sex-disaggregated data are available. The data have been compiled from official national sources as well as international sources.

These indicators are no longer updated. Please visit http://unstats.un.org/unsd/gender/data.html for other Gender Statistics.

INDSTAT4-Rev.3 contains time series data on five selected data items for the period covering 2007 - 2011. The data are arranged at the 3- and 4-digit level of ISIC (Revision 3) pertaining to the manufacturing sector, which comprises 151 manufacturing categories.

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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 2010. Additional historical data is available on request, based on a different product list, for the years 1950-2003.

International Financial Statistics (IFS) is a standard source of international statistics on all aspects of international and domestic finance. It reports, for most countries of the world, current data needed in the analysis of problems of international payments and of inflation and deflation, i.e., data on exchange rates, international liquidity, international banking, money and banking, interest rates, prices, production, international transactions, government accounts, and national accounts.

The Key Indicator of the Labour Market (KILM) is a multi-functional research tool of the ILO. The first KILM was released in 1999. It has since become a flagship product of the International Labour Office (ILO) and is used on a daily basis by researchers and policy-makers around the world in their search for comprehensive labour market information.

The LABORSTA is an International Labour Office database operated by the ILO Department of Statistics which has data and metadata on labour statistics for over 200 countries or territories. The databases cover household income and expenditure statistics, economically active population, employment, unemployment, employment (or labour force) by detailed occupational group and sex, obtained from population censuses or labour force surveys, comparable employment and unemployment estimates, public sector employment, hours of work, wages, labour cost, consumer prices, October inquiry results, occupational injuries and strikes and lockouts (data since 1969), statistical sources and methods.

Since December 2013, 90% of the information in LABORSTA have been migrated to ILOSTAT (www.ilo.org/ilostat), ILO's new Statistical Information System.

The Millennium Development Goals Database presents official data for more than 60 indicators to measure progress towards the Millennium Development Goals. The data and analyses are the product of the work of the Inter-agency and Expert Group (IAEG), coordinated by the United Nations Statistics Division.

The Economic Statistics Branch of the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD) maintains and annually updates the National Accounts Main Aggregates database. It consists of a complete and consistent set of time series, from 1970 onwards, of the main National Accounts aggregates of all UN Members States and other territories in the world for which National Accounts information is available. Its contents are based on the official data reported to UNSD through the annual National Accounts Questionnaire, supplemented with data estimates for any years and countries with incomplete or inconsistent information.

Estimates are done when no official data are available. The final aggregates are provided in national currency and in United States dollars. The main aggregates in the database include Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by type of expenditure and Gross Value Added by kind of economic activity, both at current and at constant market prices. It also contains Gross National Income (GNI) at current prices and analytical indicators and ratios that reflect economic structure and trends of countries and areas. These analytical indicators are: annual per capita GDP and GNI (calculated using actual population or annual population estimates from the UN Population Division); annual growth rates of GDP; annual shares in total GDP and total Gross Value added of their respective components; and price trends as defined by the implicit price deflators of GDP.

The National Accounts Main Aggregates database is the product of a global cooperation effort between UNSD, international statistical agencies, and the national statistical services of more than 200 countries and territories. It has been prepared in response to a request by the Statistical Commission during its first session in 1947, and is in agreement with the resolution 48/223 C of the UN General Assembly, which mandates the Committee on Contributions to prepare the Scale of Assessment for UN Member States on the basis of the most recent reliable and verifiable available data on national accounts of as many countries and areas as possible, and that these data be published and disseminated regularly.

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The Economic Statistics Branch of the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD) maintains and annually updates the National Accounts Official Country Data database. This work is carried out in accordance with the recommendation of the Statistical Commission at its first session¹ that the Statistics Division of the United Nations should publish regularly the most recent available data on national accounts for as many countries and areas as possible. The database contains detailed official national accounts statistics in national currencies as provided by the National Statistical Offices².

Data are available for most of the countries or areas of the world and form a valuable source of information on their economies. The database contains data as far back as 1946, up to the year t-1, with data for most countries available from the 1970s. The database covers not only national accounts main aggregates such as gross domestic product, national income, saving, value added by industry and household and government consumption expenditure and its relationships; but also detailed statistics for institutional sectors (including the rest of the world), comprising the production account, the generation of income account, the allocation of primary income account, the secondary distribution of income account, the use of disposable income account, the capital account and the financial account, if they are compiled by countries.

The statistics for each country or area are presented according to the uniform table headings and classifications as recommended in the United Nations System of National Accounts 1993 (1993 SNA). A summary of the 1993 SNA conceptual framework, classifications and definitions are included in the yearly publication “National Accounts Statistics, Main Aggregates and Detailed Tables”. A pdf version of the 2012 yearbook with detailed national accounts statistics of 204 countries or areas for the years 2001 to 2012 can be accessed free-of-charge from http://unstats.un.org/unsd/nationalaccount/pubsDB.asp?pType=3. Former editions of the yearbook (in pdf and print versions) are also available. Details on the publication can be found at http://unstats.un.org/unsd/nationalaccount/madt.asp. Requests for customized data downloads can be addressed to sna@un.org.

1/ United Nations, 1947, Official Records of the Economic and Social Council Supplement No. 6 (E/264), chap. VIII, para. 42. New York: United Nations Publications.
2/ 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 1968 SNA national accounts methodology, while series numbers with three digits (100, 200, etc) refer to data compiled using the 1993 SNA national accounts methodology, and series numbers with four digits (1000, 1100, etc) refer to data compiled using the 2008 SNA 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.

DEFINITIONS

OFFICIAL DEVELOPMENT ASSISTANCE (ODA)

Grants or loans to countries and territories on the DAC List of ODA Recipients (developing countries) and to multilateral agencies which are: (a) undertaken by the official sector; (b) with promotion of economic development and welfare as the main objective; (c) at concessional financial terms (if a loan, having a grant element of at least 25 per cent). In addition to financial flows, technical co-operation is included in aid. Grants, loans and credits for military purposes are excluded. Transfer payments to private individuals (e.g. pensions, reparations or insurance payouts) are in general not counted.

GRANT ELEMENT
Reflects the financial terms of a commitment: interest rate, maturity and grace period (interval to first repayment of capital). It measures the concessionality of a loan, expressed as the percentage by which the present value of the expected stream of repayments falls short of the repayments that would have been generated at a given reference rate of interest. The reference rate is 10% in DAC statistics. This rate was selected as a proxy for the marginal efficiency of the domestic investment, i.e. as an indication of the opportunity cost to the donor of making the funds available. Thus, the grant element is nil for a loan carrying an interest rate of 10 percent; it is 100 per cent for a grant; and it lies between these two limits for a soft loan. If the face value of a loan is multiplied by its grant element, the result is referred to as the grant equivalent of that loan. (cf. Concessionality Level) (Note: the grant element concept is not applied to the market-based lending operations of the multilateral development banks.)

ODA RECEIPTS
Total ODA receipts to recipient countries includes bilateral ODA provided directly by a donor country and multilateral ODA, channeled via an international organisation active in development (e.g. World Bank, UNDP). In tables showing total receipts of recipient countries, the outflows of multilateral agencies to those countries is shown, not the contributions which the agencies received from donors

MULTILATERAL OUTFLOWS
Aid activities financed from multilateral development institutions' regular budgets. Projects executed by multilateral organizations on behalf of donor countries are classified as bilateral flows, since it is the donor country that effectively controls the use of the funds.

DEBT REORGANISATION
(also Restructuring) Any action officially agreed between creditor and debtor that alters the terms previously established for repayment. This may include forgiveness (extinction of the loan), or rescheduling which can be implemented either by revising the repayment schedule or extending a new refinancing loan.

Economic and social statistics on the countries and territories of the world, with particular reference to children’s well-being.

The UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) provides UNdata with a subset of the more than 1,000 indicators which may be found in the UIS Data Centre.

The UIS Data Centre contains indicators and raw data on education, literacy, science, culture and communication. The UIS collects these data from more than 200 countries and international organizations.

The UIS is the primary data source of education, literacy and science data for leading publications and databases, such as:

• Education For All Global Monitoring Report
• World Development Indicators
• Human Development Report
• State of the World’s Children and many others.

The Data Centre provides free access to:

• The Institute’s databases and survey instruments
• Country profiles
• Tools to build your own statistical tables
• Related documentation and metadata.

UNAIDS was mandated by the UN General Assembly to monitor progress on global AIDS response in the 2001 General Assembly Special Session on HIV and AIDS, and reaffirmed in the 2011 High Level Meeting.

The Global AIDS Response Progress Reporting data consists of 30 indicators, divided by 10 global targets, which are reported by participating countries on their national response to HIV/AIDS. Data used to be reported every second year from 2004 until 2012, However, starting 2013, data are collected every year to enable effective monitoring towards Millennium Development Goals of 2015. Collected data are published as part of the Global Report on AIDS. In 2013, 171 out of 193 UN member states (186 in 2012) submitted their reports.

This dataset also includes epidemiological estimates generated using Spectrum software, a suite of easy-to-use policy models which provide policymakers with an analytical tool to support the decision making process.

Download the UNAIDS List of Indicators and Definitions

UNHCR seeks to contribute to informed decision-making and public debate by providing accurate, relevant and up-to-date statistics. As such, the Statistical Online Population Database (LINK: http://www.unhcr.org/statistics/populationdatabase) provides data and trends on the "Population of concern to UNHCR": refugees, asylum-seekers, returned refugees, internally displaced persons (IDPs) protected/assisted by UNHCR, returned IDPs, stateless persons, and others of concern to UNHCR, in more than 180 countries.

The online database brings together in a single electronic platform standardized data on UNHCR's population of concern at country, regional, and global levels. The page Frequently Requested Statistics is a collection of some of the most frequently requested statistics from the UNHCR Statistical Online Population Database.

UNODC Homicide Statistics provide users with a reference for the largest number of countries and the longest time series on homicide data possible. A variety of national and international sources on homicide have been considered to compile UNODC Homicide Statistics and, in order to present accurate and comparable statistics, data have been selected which conform as much as possible to the definition of intentional homicide used by UNODC for statistical purpose: ‘‘unlawful death purposefully inflicted on a person by another person”.

All existing data sources on intentional homicides, both at national and international level, stem from either criminal justice or public health systems. In the former case, data are generated by law enforcement or criminal justice authorities in the process of recording and investigating a crime event while, in the latter, data are produced by health authorities certifying the cause of death of an individual. Public health data on homicides were derived from databases on deaths by cause disseminated by WHO, both at central level and through some of its regional offices.

Data included in the dataset correspond to the original value provided by the source of origin, since no statistical procedure or modelling was used to change collected values or to create new or revised figures.

Source type:
• CJ: Criminal Justice
• PH: Public Health

Data sources:
• CTS: United Nations Surveys on Crime Trends and the Operations of Criminal Justice Systems (CTS)
• Eurostat: The statistical office of the European Union. Offences recorded by the police.
• GBI: Global Burden of Injuries, Injury Mortality Data Collection
• Interpol: International Criminal Justice organization
• NGO: Non-governmental organization
• NSO: National Statistical Office
• OAS: Organization of American States - Observatory on Citizen Security. Number of offences of intentional homicide recorded by the police.
• OCAVI: Observatorio Centroamericano sobre Violencia - The Central American Observatory on Violence. Sourced from national police data.
• PAHO: Pan American Health Organization's Core Health Data System
• SES: Regional System of Standardized Citizen Security and Coexistence Indicators
• Transmonee: UNICEF TransMONEE Database. Innocenti Research Centre, Florence
• UN-OCHA: UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Integrated Regional Information Network
• UN-PKO: UN Peacekeeping Operations
• WHO: World Health Organization Global Burden of Disease Mortality Estimates

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.

World Health Statistics presents the most recent health statistics for WHO’s Member States.

World Contraceptive Use, prepared by the United Nations Population Division, provides a comparable and up-to-date set of national data on contraceptive prevalence for almost all countries and areas of the world. It also provides estimates of unmet need for family planning.

Metadata:

• Contraceptive prevalence
• Unmet need for family planning

Citation:
United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division (2014). World Contraceptive Use 2014 (POP/DB/CP/Rev2014).

The World Development Indicators (WDI) is the statistical benchmark that helps measure the progress of development.

The WDI provides a comprehensive overview of development drawing on data from the World Bank and more than 30 partners.

The World Development Indicators (WDI) publication is the World Bank's premier annual compilation of data about development. The complete WDI database includes more than 1,200 indicators.

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World Fertility Data 2012 provides a comparable and up-to-date set of national data on fertility and the timing of childbearing for all countries and areas of the world. The indicators presented are direct estimates from country data. To the extent that data are available, data are presented for five reference dates: 1970, 1985, 1995, 2005 and the most recent data available.

Metadata:

• Age-specific fertility rates, Total fertility and Mean age at childbearing
• Annual number of live births and Crude birth rate
• Children ever born

Citation:
United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division (2013). World Fertility Data 2012 (POP/DB/Fert/Rev2012).

World Marriage Data 2012 provides a comparable and up-to-date set of data on the marital status of the population for all countries and areas of the world. Data are presented for the closest date available around five reference dates: the years closest to 1970, 1985, 1995, 2005 and the most recent data available.

Metadata:

• Marital status of men and women
• Currently married men and women
• Ever married men and women
• Singulate mean age at marriage

Citation:
United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division (2013). World Marriage Data 2012 (POP/DB/Marr/Rev2012).

WMO data provide the basis for better understanding the climatology of severe weather and extreme events such as tropical cyclones, El Niño, floods, heat waves, cold waves, droughts and other natural hazards, contributing to saving both lives and property, and improving our understanding and monitoring of the climate system and environment. WMO has drawn attention to issues of major concern, such as ozone layer depletion, global warming, climate change and diminishing water resources.

WMO enhances the application of meteorological and hydrological information for the security and well-being of society. Such information is crucial for addressing major challenges such as food security, water resources management, reduction of pollution, decision-making related to the health sector, transport, tourism among others.

WMO provides guidelines to use procedures for analysing climate data for climate change purposes as well as for other applications. This includes, inter-alia, analysis of extremes in a changing climate, the role of climatological normals in a changing climate and climate data homogenisation. Description of processes, methodologies and practices in climatology are provided within a mandatory publication representing the WMO guide to climatological practices.

WMO defines climatological standard normals as "averages of climatological data computed for the following consecutive periods of 30 years: January 1, 1901 to December 31, 1930, January 1, 1931 to December 31, 1960, etc." (WMO, 1984).The latest global standard normals period is 1961-1990. The next standard normals periode is January 1991 – December 2020.

The United Nations World Population Prospects: The 2012 Revision contains estimates since 1950 and projections until 2100 for every country in the world, including estimates and projections of 60 demographic indicators such as birth rates, deaths rates, infant mortality rates and life expectancy. A sample set of summary indicators are provided as part of UNdata. More detailed data by age and sex are available from the Population Division web site and on CD-ROM/DVD.

Citation:
United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division, World Population Prospects: The 2012 Revision, New York, 2013.

The World Statistics Pocketbook is an authoritative and comprehensive compilation of over 50 key statistical indicators, collected from over 20 international statistical sources and presented in one-page profiles for 217 countries or areas of the world. The 2014 edition covers various years from 2005 to 2014. For the economic indicators, in general, three years - 2005, 2010 and 2012 - are shown; for the indicators in the social and environmental categories, data for one year are presented.

The topics covered include: agriculture, balance of payments, education, energy, environment, food, gender, health, industrial production, information and communication, international finance, international tourism, international trade, labour, migration, national accounts, population and prices. The current country profiles in UNdata are taken from the World Statistics Pocketbook, 2014 edition.

ITU's World Telecommunication/ICT Indicators Database is the main source of global, and internationally comparable, telecommunication/ICT statistics. It includes time series for more than 140 indicators and around 200 economies. The data are collected directly from telecommunication regulatory agencies and/or ministries and national statistical offices by means of an annual questionnaire, and subsequently verified, harmonized and complemented by ITU.

The data are disseminated online, via CD Rom and through numerous ITU publications, including the Yearbook of Statistics and the Measuring the Information Society Report. The statistics are used to track and benchmark the Information Society, to monitor the digital divide and to identify market potential and investment opportunities. They are an indispensable tool for policy makers in the area of ICT for development.

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Availability of ICT in households and use of ICTs by individuals

The World Tourism Organization's Compendium of Tourism Statistics and Yearbook of Tourism Statistics provide comprehensive information on international tourism worldwide and offer a selection of the latest available statistics on "arrivals of non-resident tourists/visitors" and "tourism expenditure".

Terms and definitions used in the United Nations Statistics Division demographic statistics.

The Glossary of Environment Statistics was published by United Nations Statistics Division in 1997 and contains approximately 1200 environmental terms. It is a quick reference tool for terms and definitions relevant to environmental data production and use. An updated web version (from 2001) of the Glossary is available. A revised version is currently being prepared.

The National Accounts Main Aggregates Glossary contains terms and definitions used in the System of National Accounts. This glossary uses descriptions of the OECD glossary of statistical terms, the Glossary of the System of National Accounts 1993 and the UN classifications registry.

The SDMX Metadata Common Vocabulary contains concepts and related definitions to which terminology used in structural and reference metadata of international organisations and national data producing agencies may be mapped. The content includes a selected range of metadata concepts: (1) General metadata concepts, mostly derived from ISO, UNECE and UN documents, useful for providing a general context to metadata management; (2) Metadata terms describing statistical methodologies (frequency, reference period, data collection, source, adjustment, etc.); (3) Metadata for assessing quality (accuracy, timeliness, etc.), and (4) Terms referring specifically to data and metadata exchange (terminology from the SDMX information model and from existing data structure definitions, etc.).

The System of National Accounts 1993 Glossary shows definitions used in national accounts as well as references to where they are found in the 1993 System of National Accounts.

Terms and definitions used in the World Population Prospects: The 2006 Revision.