UNdata
Verified working Jul 31, 2026
A UN hub for downloadable global statistics across major policy areas.
UNdata is the United Nations Statistics Division’s portal for searching and downloading official statistics from UN and partner databases. It covers country, regional, and global indicators across population, national accounts, education, labour, trade, health, environment, tourism, development assistance, and other policy areas.
Why it stands out
- Aggregates many official UN statistical databases behind one search and browsing interface.
- Covers a broad range of public-policy indicators rather than a single sector.
- Front-page tables expose both topic groupings and last-updated dates, useful for quick citation checks.
- Supports both human browsing and machine access through CSV downloads and a web service/API.
Good to know
- Indicator coverage and update timing vary by database and table, so recency is not uniform across topics.
- The portal is geared toward aggregate official statistics, not record-level microdata or custom survey files.
- Some datasets originate from specialized UN agencies or partner institutions, so definitions and methodologies may differ by source.
Under the radar: Before using a table in a citation-heavy report, check the Update Calendar or the table’s displayed update date; closely related indicators may have different refresh cycles.
Policy analysts and researchers need cross-country official statistics from UN sources in one place. Compare GDP, population, education, labour, or health indicators across countries. Download CSV tables for reports, dashboards, coursework, or data journalism. Check when a statistical table or database was last updated before citing it. Browse by topic when you know the subject area but not the exact dataset name.
Search, advanced search, browsing, and an Explorer interface for finding datasets; 32 databases with tens of millions of records; country and regional profile tables; downloadable CSV outputs for many tables; glossary, documentation, update calendar, and a documented web service/API.
Technical Notes
- UNdata includes a documented API/Web Service for programmatic access to datasets.
- Many statistical tables provide direct CSV downloads for structured offline use.
Alternative listings
Global development indicators, surveys, and datasets in one official hub.
Open Data & Research PortalsWorld Bank Open Data is the World Bank Group’s public portal for development statistics, country profiles, indicators, survey data, and related analytical tools. It connects users to World Development Indicators, DataBank time series, the Microdata Library, the Data Catalog, and interactive Atlas visualizations covering topics such as poverty, health, education, infrastructure, climate, and economic growth.
1 votesVisit siteA global directory of open data portals with reusable exports.
Open Data & Research PortalsDataPortals.org catalogs open data portals operated by governments, international organizations, NGOs, and other institutions around the world. The site lets visitors browse the directory, contribute additions, and download the portal list as open data.
0 votesVisit site
Similar sites elsewhere
- World Bank Open Data — data.worldbank.org
- OECD Data — data.oecd.org
- IMF Data — data.imf.org
- FAOSTAT — fao.org/faostat