Statistics

The United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD) compiles, analyses and publishes global statistical information, develops technical cooperation programmes and international statistical activities, and assists Member States in improving their statistical services. UNSD is av subunit to Statistical Commission.

Statistics from the United Nations provides a picture of the state of the world and facilitates national and international policy formulation and implementation.

Find statistics from the United Nations

Statistics from the United Nations and its programs, funds and agencies are often used in both scholarly resources and in news reports. Here are some ways to find statistics from the United Nations:

  1. UNdata includes data from a variety of UN sources.
  2. What is the statistic about? Check the UN bodies or related organizations, for instance:
  3. "Flagship reports", issued by the UN bodies, are the main information product of a UN agency. They are usually issued once a year, as annual reports or yearbooks, and have become web-based publications, with downloadable statistical annexes. Somtimes the statistical information is available as databases.
  4. Other UN statistical resources.
  5. If the data is about a particular country, check the website of the UN country or regional office (often led by UNDP).
  6. If your are looking for statistical data for a particular topic consult the list above and check out the websites of the UN funds, programs and specialized agencies.
  7. Secondary sources: often the same statistic is highlighted in several news reports and one of them may have given citation to the source.

More on UN and statistics and data

United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD) publishes annual statistical reports, compendiums and handbooks. Statistical information is available as electronic publications and data files.

UN documents and publications in catalogues and databases

  • United Nations Digital Library offers UN documents and open access publications, UN voting data and speeches, UN maps, Content in 6+ languages. Replaces the traditional online catalogue UNBISnet.
  • UN iLibrary UN publications online covering different topics.
  • ODS full-text UN documents published from 1993 onward and scanned documents published between 1946 and 1993 in the official languages of the UN.
  • Daily list of documents (ODS). Documents published for the day, with full text links, can be found in the United Nations full text database ODS.
  • UNBIS Thesaurus a multilingual database of the controlled vocabulary used to describe UN documents.
  • Index to proceedings is an annual bibliographic guide to the proceedings and documentation of the major UN organs. The index includes:
    • a list of all documents
    • a comprehensive subject index
    • an index to speeches
    • a voting chart of resolutions
  • United Nations Documents Index (United Nations Digital Library) References to all documents by subject area are published. A collection of indexes is held by the Dag Hammarskjöld and Law Library, Uppsala, and the Libraries at UN Headquarters in New York and Geneva.
Last modified: 2023-04-03