Key facts about the Statistical Commission
Increased participation
- Since its first regular session in 1947, the rotating membership of the Commission increased from 12 to 24 countries.
- The level of country participation in the Commission's regular sessions also grew from 9 to 95 countries between 1947 and 2006, with a remarkable expansion of developing country attendance, from 2 to 73 countries.
- While its meetings were held biennially until 1999, the Commission has convened annually thereafter
Expanded scope of work
- The first regular session addressed the role of the Sub-Commission on Statistical Sampling, the transfer of the statistical services of the League of Nations, coordination of statistical activities between the United Nations and specialized agencies, and relations with international non-governmental organizations interested in the development of statistics
- At the thirty-seventh session in 2006, 23 substantive themes were brought up, ranging from the long-standing themes, such as national accounts and social statistics, to more recent topics, such as environmental accounting and informal sector statistics
Eight most discussed subjects
- Coordination and integration of statistical programs
- Environment statistics
- External trade statistics
- Industrial statistics
- National accounts
- Population and housing censuses
- Social statistics
- Technical cooperation
Participation statistics
- Countries that participated either as members or observers: 134
- Countries represented at 1st session: 9
- Countries represented at 37th session in 2006: 97
- Increase in the developing country participation between 1st session in 1947 and 37th session in 2006: From 2 to 73
Most discussed topics:
- Overall: National accounts (addressed in 29 sessions)
- 1940s: Statistical sampling
- 1950s: External trade statistics
- 1960s: System of National Accounts
- 1970s: Coordination and integration of statistical programs
- 1980s: Environment statistics, links between System of National Accounts (SNA) and System of Balances of the National Economy (MPS), Population and housing censuses, SNA, Technical cooperation
- 1990s: Coordination and integration of statistical programmes and Technical cooperation
Most frequent participants:
- Overall: France, Russian Federation/USSR, United Kingdom and the United States (39 times) followed by India (37 times), Canada (35 times), Ukraine (34 times) and China (33 times)
- As a member: Russian Federation/USSR and the United Kingdom (39 times) followed by United States (38 times), France and India (35 times), and China and Ukraine (30 times)
- As an observer: Canada (15 times), followed by Italy (14 times), Cuba (13 times), Belarus and Turkey (11 times), and Portugal (9 times)
- As Chair of the Commission: Netherlands (4 times), United Kingdom (4 times), and United States(4 times)
