United Nations Statistics Division

UNSD Environmental Indicators disseminate global environment statistics on ten indicator themes compiled from a wide range of data sources. The themes and indicator tables were selected based on the current demands for international environmental statistics and the availability of internationally comparable data. Statistics on Water and Waste are based on official statistics supplied by national statistical offices and/or ministries of environment (or equivalent institutions) in response to the biennial UNSD/UNEP Questionnaire on Environment Statistics, complemented with comparable statistics from OECD and Eurostat, and water resources data from FAO Aquastat. Statistics on other themes were compiled by UNSD from other international sources. In a few cases, UNSD has made some calculations in order to derive the indicators. However, generally no adjustments have been made to the values received from the source. UNSD is not responsible for the quality, completeness/availability, and validity of the data. Environment statistics is still in an early stage of development in many countries, and data are often sparse. The indicators selected here are those of relatively good quality and geographic coverage. Information on data quality and comparability is given at the end of each table together with other important metadata.

The Economic Statistics Branch of the United Nations Statistics Division maintains this National Accounts Statistics database of main national accounts aggregates. It is the product of a global cooperation effort between the United Nations Statistics Division, international statistical agencies and the national statistical services of more than 200 countries and is in accordance with the request of the Statistical Commission that the most recent available data on national accounts of as many countries and areas as possible be published and disseminated regularly. This National Accounts Statistics database contains a complete and consistent set of time series from 1970 onwards of main national accounts aggregates for allUN Members States and all other countries and areas in the world. It is maintained and updated on the basis of annual collections of the official annual national accounts statistics supplemented by estimates of national accounts statistics for those years and countries for which the official statistics has incomplete or inconsistent information. In addition, to the values of national accounts statistics, it contains analytical indicators and ratios derived from the main national accounts aggregates related to economic structure and development.

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 session 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 Offices.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).Different series numbers (dimension “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.

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.

Both ethanol and biodiesel are classified under the HS-6 digit categories that also contain other products. Biodiesel is an industrial product (as it is produced through a chemical process called transsesterification) and classified under HS code 382490 - products, preparations and residual products of the chemical or allied industries not elsewhere specified. Ethanol is classified as an agriculture product under HS code 2207, which covers un-denatured (HS 2207 10) and denatured alcohol (HS 2207 20).

The global database for merchandise trade statistics: groups 01-24 (4 digit level of HS Classification)

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 basic statistics for more than 215 countries/territories. Currently, the database provides time series for the period 1950-2009 and is updated annually during the period October-November.The Energy Statistics Database provides statistics on production, trade, transformation and consumption (end-use) for primary and secondary, conventional, non-conventional and new and renewable sources of energy, as well as population estimates to enable the calculation of per capita indicators. The database contains data in their original units (e.g. metric tonnes, GWh) and also calorific values to allow interfuel comparison in a common energy unit (terajoules). The main source of information for the Energy Statistics Database is the UNSD Annual Questionnaire on Energy Statistics. Additional sources of information for the database include national, regional and international statistical publications (including, but not limited to publications from: the International Energy Agency (OECD/IEA), the Statistical Office of the European Communities (Eurostat), the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), the Organización Latinoamericana de Energía (OLADE), etc.). The Statistics Division prepares estimates where official data are incomplete or inconsistent.