Environment Statistics

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. Indicator tables, with relatively good quality and coverage across countries, are provided under each theme.

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.