Statistics | FAO | Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

Statistics

News

Value-driven transformation of agrifood systems

News

Global cereal production and trade likely to decline from last year

News

Expanded FAOSTAT feature offers more insights into who is doing the work to keep the world fed

Data centers
FAOSTAT

FAOSTAT provides free access to food and agriculture statistics (including crop, livestock, and forestry sub-sectors) for over 245 countries and territories and covers all FAO regional groupings from 1961 to the most recent year available.

SDG Indicators

FAO’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Data Portal provides access to the 21 SDG indicators under FAO custodianship as well as key information to support countries in tracking progress towards SDGs.

AMIS

The Agricultural Market Information System (AMIS) is an inter-agency platform to enhance food market transparency and policy response for food security. It provides market information on four grains particularly important in international food markets: wheat, maize, rice and soybeans.

Food and Agriculture Microdata Catalogue (FAM)

The Food and Agriculture Microdata (FAM) Catalogue provides access to micro datasets collected through farm and household surveys which contain information related to agriculture, food security and nutrition.

FAO DATA EXPLORER beta

Food and agriculture

AIDmonitor

Official Development Assistance

AQUASTAT

Water resources and management

DAD-IS

Domestic Animal Diversity

Emergencies

Data in Emergencies Hub (DIEM)

Empres-i

Global Animal Disease Information System

FAO/WHO GIFT

Individual food consumption

FishStat

Fishery and Aquaculture

FPMA

Food Prices Monitoring and Analysis

FRA

Global Forest Resources

GAEZ v4

Global Agro-Ecological Zoning version 4

HiH

Hand-in-Hand Initiative

INFOODS

Food Composition

Locust Hub

Desert Locust situation

RuLIS

Rural livelihoods

WaPOR

Remote sensing for water productivity

WIEWS

Plant Genetic Resources

FAO's statistical work

Sound and timely statistics are key to inform decisions, policies and investments that tackle issues related to food and agriculture, from hunger and malnutrition to rural poverty, from food systems productivity to the sustainable use of natural resources or to climate change.

FAO is dedicated to collecting, analysing, interpreting and disseminating food and agriculture statistics that are relevant for decision-making.

It is for this reason that developing and implementing methodologies and standards to assist countries in generating sound data and information is at the core of FAO’s statistical work.

FAO also supports member countries in the collection, dissemination and uptake of data to formulate policies and plans or to better orient investments.

Major areas of FAO’s statistical work

A comprehensive list of FAO Statistical activities is included in the Statistical Programme of Work.

How we work

FAO’s statistical system operates under the oversight of the Chief Statistician and consists of a statistics division, statistics units embedded in technical departments and a Data Lab for Statistical Innovation.

FAO has three statutory bodies on statistics, composed of senior statistics officials from member countries, which meet every two years:

Their role is to review the state of food and agricultural statistics in their respective region, to advise Members on the development and standardization of agricultural statistics within the general framework of FAO’s work and to convene the study groups or other Subsidiary Bodies of national experts required for this purpose.

FAO Statistics and Data Quality Assurance Framework (SDQAF, 2023) and the FAO Data and Statistical Standards Series adopted more recently, set out the principles and recommended best practices to ensure that FAO statistical production processes and statistical outputs are of the highest possible quality. The SQAF is based on the Fundamental Principles of Official Statistics and the Principles Governing International Statistical Activities (CCSA), which guide the statistical activities of national and international organizations, and is inspired by the quality frameworks adopted by other supranational and international organizations [e.g. European Central Bank (ECB), Eurostat, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and International Monetary Fund (IMF)]. In 2020, FAO has also endorsed the  ISI’s Declaration on Professional Ethics (2010) to encourage all its statisticians to adopt high-standard professional values and ethics in statistics.

FAO makes a significant contribution to global discussions related to food and agricultural statistics through its participation in international and regional statistical fora.

As the UN agency responsible for the development of methods and standards on food and agriculture statistics and for their implementation in countries, the Organization acts as the Secretariat of the United Nations Committee of Experts on Food Security, Agricultural and Rural Statistics (UN-CEAG) and the Coordinating Working Party on Fishery Statistics (CWP).

The Organization also participates in several Committee of experts and working groups under the United Nations Statistical Commission (UNSC) (the highest body of the global statistical system bringing together the Chief Statisticians from all UN member states) as well as other regional statistical coordination bodies relevant to FAO’s statistical mandate.

Finally, FAO also co-organizes, in collaboration each time with a different member country, the International Conference on Agricultural Statistics (ICAS), which is held every three years under the auspices of the Committee on Agricultural Statistics of the International Statistical Institute (ISI).

Meetings and Events

Hybrid Event

2024 Pacific Small Island Developing States (SIDS) Solutions Forum
05/11/2024 - 08/11/2024

Transforming Agrifood Systems for our Blue Pacific Continent through Better Production, Better Nutrition, a Better Environment and a Better Life

Hybrid Event, Medellín (Colombia)

UN World Data Forum (UNWDF 2024)
12/11/2024 - 15/11/2024

The United Nations World Data Forum 2024 is taking place from 12 to 15 November in Medellín, Colombia. The aim of the Forum is to spur data...

Hybrid Event

Food Systems Countdown Initiative Workshop: Performance and Integration
29/10/2024 - 30/10/2024

The Food Systems Countdown Initiative is a collaborative effort to monitor global food systems. 

Stay connected
Work with us

Diet and Food Consumption data Monitoring Specialist

(Deadline: 8 November 2024)

All jobs >>

 

FAO data and statistics newsletter (October/November 2024)

Welcome to this issue of the FAO data and statistics newsletter, where we bring you up-to-date on recent developments related to data, statistics and the SDG indicators under FAO custodianship in the Organization.