Data collection

At the request of the Statistical Commission and its Working Group on International Programmes and Coordination, UNSD has embarked on the collection of environmental data from national statistical offices in 1999. The data collection was repeated in 2001/2002, 2004 and 2006. A full analysis of the results of these very first efforts at the international collection of a set of environmental variables is given in a report to the 34th session of the Statistical Commission on environment statistics. The Statistical Commission supported and approved the programme for data collection outlined in the report.

The data collection was joined by the United Nations Environment Programme in 2004 and has been established on a biennial basis as part of UNSD’s regular data collection programme. The Questionnaire is sent to the national statistical offices as well as to the ministries/agencies responsible for environmental matters.

The data received from countries, together with data from other sources, feed into UNSD’s evolving environment statistics database. Main environmental indicators derived from these data are now available.

The Questionnaire 2006 on Environment Statistics, focusing on Water and Waste, was sent to countries in early 2006.