New Developments and Tools in International Statistical Classifications

Introduction

UNSD, in collaboration with the UN Committee of Experts on International Statistical Classifications (UNCEISC), is organizing a side event of the UNSC 56^th session, with the theme New Developments and Tools in International Statistical Classifications. The side event is scheduled for Friday, 14 February 2025 from 9:00 am to 10:00 am (New York time) as a virtual event.

International statistical classifications are a fundamental component of a statistical infrastructure that ensures the use of consistent and harmonized concepts for the development of internationally comparable statistics. This side event will showcase activities of the UN Committee of Experts on International Statistical Classifications in 2024 on the development and maintenance of international statistical classifications in various fields and its work on the coordination of classifications and the review of the international family of classifications. It will showcase activities of the Committee on the following program in 2024: Central Product Classification (CPC); Classification of the Functions of Government (COFOG); and the International Classification for Administrative Data on Trafficking in Persons (IC-TIP).

The Central Product Classification (CPC) constitutes a complete product classification covering all goods and services. It serves as an international standard for assembling and tabulating all kinds of data requiring product detail, including statistics on industrial production, domestic and foreign commodity trade, international trade in services, balance of payments, consumption and price statistics and other data used within the national accounts. The drafting of the explanatory note and introductory text to the CPC Version 3.0 have been completed, which have been submitted to the Statistical Commission for endorsement at the forthcoming session. The side event will provide an update on the finalization process of CPC Ver.3.0.

The revision process of the COFOG was launched in 2024 following the approval of the terms of refence of the COFOG revision task team by the Statistical Commission at its 55th session. A global consultation on the list of revision issue was launched in November 2024. The side event will provide an update on the COFOG revision process and the results of the global consultation.

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) have worked with anti-trafficking practitioners and technical experts to develop a draft International Classification for Administrative Data on Trafficking in Persons (IC-TIP). The IC-TIP provides standardized definitions for classification variables of the trafficking in persons event, as well as disaggregating variables at the victim, perpetrator and reporting entity levels. It is intended to improve the harmonization and comparability of data related to the trafficking in persons and enables consistent reporting across jurisdictions, countries and regions. The side event will showcase the IC-TIP, which the Committee has recommended for approval by the Statistical Commission as an international statistical classification at the forthcoming session.

The side event will also present the ongoing collaboration effort by the Statistics Division and FAO in promoting the publication of statistical data in linked open data (LOD) format, with an objective to leverage data science methods to obtain novel insights about the deep temporal, geospatial and logical interlinkages between statistical datasets, concepts and classifications. A key highlight will be Caliper, an innovative platform built on open-source tools for managing statistical classifications throughout their lifecycle in alignment with data interoperability standards.