United Nations Resources

The Energy Statistics Database contains basic statistics for more than 220 countries/territories. The most recent four years in the database are disseminated through the Energy Statistics Yearbook and the Energy Balances and Electricity Profiles. Data from 1990 to 2013 are available online through the UNdata portal.

This is the authoritative source for datasets used by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Global Environment Outlook partners. The database contains more than 500 different variables as national, regional, and global statistics or as geospatial datasets (maps), covering such themes as fresh water, population, forests, emissions, climate, disasters, health, and GDP. This site allows users to create maps, graphs, or data tables, or to download the data in different formats.

This is Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO) global water information system, developed by the Land and Water Division. The most quoted source on global water statistics, this portal includes maps, summary and spatial tables, and datasets.

This is an open source platform for food and agriculture statistics, including national and subnational levels. The goal of this platform is to act as a portal for statistics from member states. A useful e-learning course is available for CountrySTAT to upgrade statistical and technical skills of member states to improve data collection, quality and storage of food, and agricultural data.

FAOSTAT provides free access to food and agriculture statistics (including crop, livestock, and forestry sub-sectors) for over 245 countries and territories and covers all FAO regional groupings from 1961 to the most recent year available.

This database maintained by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) shows data about populations of concern from 1951 to the most recent data collected and allows users to view general composition by location of residence or origin, status (refugees, asylum seekers, internally displaced persons, etc.) and evolution.

Allows experts to keep up (through 2015, at present) with data relevant to health, education, and standard of living, and to compare a country of expertise with most others in the world.

The United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) houses data including child mortality, health and nutrition, maternal health, water and sanitation, education, child migration and displacement, child protection, and HIV/AIDS. Users can view statistics by topic or country.

The GHO data repository is WHO's gateway to health-related statistics for its 194 Member States. It provides access to over 1000 indicators on priority health topics, including mortality and burden of diseases, the Millennium Development Goals (child nutrition, child health, maternal and reproductive health, immunization, HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, neglected diseases, water, and sanitation), non-communicable diseases and risk factors, epidemic-prone diseases, health systems, environmental health, violence and injuries, equity among others.

The United Nations Commodity Trade Statistics Database (UN COMTRADE) contains detailed goods imports and exports statistics reported by statistical authorities of nearly 200 countries or areas. It concerns annual trade data from 1962 to the most recent year. UN COMTRADE is considered the most comprehensive trade database available, with more than 3 billion records.

The UN Statistics Division created visualizations of downloadable time-series data that reflect the latest trade data available in UN COMTRADE. Countries’ export and import data are displayed in a world map that is color-coded by trade intensity and visualizations of trade balances, top trading partners, top traded commodities, etc. It can be further customized by selecting individual or multiple countries, regions and/or commodities, and period.

The UN Office On Drugs and Crime has a Statistics division that provides drug indicator data, including use and health consequences, production, and trafficking. It also provides such criminal justice statistics as crime, homicide, and special reports.

The UN System Chief Executives Board for Coordination is the longest-standing and highest-level coordination forum of the UN system. It meets biannually and is chaired by the UN Secretary-General.

The UN Office for Disarmament Affairs produces the United Nations Report on Military Expenditures. Choosing Databases and Research tools, users can view GA Resolutions and Decisions, Disarmament Treaties, the Military Expenditures Database, and the Global Reported Arms Trade.

The UN Treaty Collection describes the Treaty Section of the UN Office of Legal Affairs, including Depositary of Treaties, Registration and Publication of Treaties, resources that include the Treaty Handbook in six languages and training.

n exciting advancement is the UN Enterprise Search tool that can search for data in six languages. Searching with the word dataset will also be helpful. Users can search for websites, documents, videos, images, social media, and data. As more divisions of the UN are added, finding data will continue to be easier. The enterprise search currently includes the Department of Economic and Social Affairs and the Office of Administration of Justice.