Demographic and Social Statistics

The 18th IAEG-GS Meeting will be held virtually from 3 to 5 December 2024. The meeting, which is closed and by invitation only, will be attended by gender statistics experts representing international, regional, and national institutions that are part of the IAEG-GS. The Meeting will: (a) review progress in the implementation of the mandate on integrating a gender perspective into the work of the Statistical Commission.; (b) showcase innovative initiatives in gender statistics for improved assessment of the status of women and girls in select countries, regional commissions and international agencies; be appraised of progress made on methodological work on violence against women; (c) advance understanding of the gender dimension, and its measurement challenges, in the fields of care and wellbeing, building on the Pact of the Future, including in the context of Beyond GDP and the Global Digital Compact; learn about the Friends of the Chair (FoC) Group on Social and Demographic Statistics, the work towards a conceptual framework, and its key building blocks; and report on agreed 2024 activities, draw conclusions of this meeting and agree activities for 2025, including the 10GFGS.

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The webinar, organized by the Friends of the Chair Group on Social and Demographic Statistics, in collaboration with the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD), will explore the concept of time as a crucial integrating element in social and demographic statistics. The event will address best practices for data collection and dissemination frequencies, the importance of longitudinal data and life course approaches in understanding social outcomes, and propose mechanisms to ensure the adaptability and relevance of demographic and social statistics over time. Key themes include managing trade-offs between timeliness and resource constraints, understanding social outcomes through life course transitions, and incorporating generational measures to reflect societal changes.

The webinar aims to foster comprehensive discussions and generate recommendations that enhance the collection, analysis, and dissemination of demographic and social statistics.

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Join this insightful webinar organized by the Friends of the Chair Group on Social and Demographic Statistics (FOC), in collaboration with the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD), exploring the critical role of location, geography, and places in social and demographic statistics. The places where people grow up, live and work significantly influence their lives, revealing disparities and informing policy through place-based breakdowns and geo-spatial analysis. This session will also discuss how geography acts as a crosscutting element, integrating various data sources and linking different statistical domains. Key topics include the use of georeferenced data, the potential of satellite imagery, and techniques like small area estimation to address data gaps. The discussion will highlight national perspectives and user demands, showcasing examples of how 'place' can predict social outcomes and enhance data dissemination through geoportals.

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This sprint, the second in a series of online events organized by the Friends of the Chair Group on Social and Demographic Statistics, in collaboration with the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD), is an opportunity to take stock of and review essential elements for developing and maintaining population data systems fit for current and future data demands. Indeed, countries are expected to significantly transform their data collection and processing systems, by adopting digital-first, multi-mode methods, increasing utilization of geospatial information and administrative data sources, and developing strategies to address and adapt to potential shocks and disruptions. Against this background, this sprint will discuss both current and emerging practices to enhance the quality of population statistics and will address ongoing challenges and the growing need for integrated data sources, innovative methods, and techniques to meet diverse data demands effectively.

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Relationships are a crucial, but underexplored, building block of social and demographic statistics. This webinar, the first in a series of online events organized by the Friends of the Chair Group on Social and Demographic Statistics (FOC), in collaboration with the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD), will examine relationships at multiple levels—among and between individuals, groups large and small, and institutions. The event will provide an opportunity to review what is currently known about 'relationships' and how they are measured across different national statistical systems. It will also explore gaps in understanding and highlight the most important concepts that need further investigation.

The webinar aims to define why relationships are essential and to gain a deeper understanding of their characteristics, functions, and impacts. This will guide the FOC's efforts to establish recommendations on how relationships should be treated from a measurement perspective in social statistics.

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The EG-TUS meeting is convened to present the final version of the revised UN Guide to Producing Statistics on Time Use and accompanying time-use data resources hub, which marks the conclusion of a phase of methodological development as expressed in the terms of reference of the EG-TUS and to strategize on ways to build national capacity and provide technical assistance to countries, particularly in developing regions in the area of time-use statistics as requested by the Statistical Commission. The EG-TUS meeting will also provide an opportunity for members to exchange the latest practices, lessons learned, and future projects.

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The first Expert Group Meeting on the Revision of the Principles and Recommendations for Population and Housing Censuses is organized by the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD) in a virtual format. The Expert Group will thoroughly review the existing version of the Principles and Recommendations with a view to bringing it in line with good practices and contemporary approaches to conducting censuses. A multitude of changes have been documented in the current census round pertaining to the use of technologies, adoption of multi-modal data collection, and utilization of administrative data sources. Many countries had to innovate to overcome the challenges of conducting censuses during the global COVID-19 pandemic. As a reference publication, the revised Principles and Recommendations should reflect the innovations made and the experiences collected thus far and provide comprehensive guidance to national statistical authorities for planning, organizing, conducting, and utilizing 2030 round population and housing censuses.

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The 16th IAEG-GS Meeting will be held virtually from 12th to 14th December 2022. The meeting, which is closed and by invitation only, will be attended by gender statistics experts representing international, regional, and national institutions that are part of the IAEG-GS, as well as by national experts working in the areas of environment and trade statistics in select countries. The Meeting will: (a) discuss ongoing initiatives on mainstreaming gender into select non-traditional areas of gender statistics, and agree on a way forward for an established IAEG-GS Advisory Group to contribute to the request of the Statistical Commission on mainstreaming a gender perspective into the work of the Commission; (b) discuss and review preliminary results from the 2022 Global Survey on gender statistics, including lessons learnt and potential uses, and some related challenges; (c) showcase some national initiatives on closing data gaps for monitoring gender equality; (d) include updates by the Regional Commissions and international agencies on their ongoing initiative to strengthen gender statistics; and (e) cover future work priorities for the IAEG-GS, as well as preparations for the 9th Global Forum on Gender Statistics in 2023.

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This meeting brought together the group of experts on time-use statistics, established by the Statistical Commission in 2020 to develop innovative and effective ways to produce and use time-use statistics. The Expert Group Meeting was convened to discuss the revision of the 2005 United Nations Guidelines for Producing Time-use statistics, to be published in 2024. In particular, the group discussed the outline of and specific steps for the revision of the Guidelines.

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The United Nations Regional Workshop on the 2020 World Population and Housing Censuses: International Standards and Contemporary Technologies is organized by the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD), in collaboration with the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) for French-speaking African countries. The workshop is conducted in French and English and in a virtual format.

The objective of the workshop is to introduce three of UNSD's latest international guidelines on population and housing censuses—the Principles and Recommendations for Population and Housing Censuses, Revision 3, the Handbook on the Management of Population and Housing Censuses, Revision 2, and the Guidelines on the Use of Electronic Data Collection Technologies in Population and Housing Censuses—and the standards, concepts and methods contained therein with a view to facilitate planning and preparations for the 2020 round of population and housing censuses. The workshop also provides an opportunity to discuss the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic on conducting 2020 round of population and housing censuses and possible modifications in census procedures

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The Expert Group Meeting on the Draft Handbook on Registers-Based Population and Housing Censuses is organized by the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD) in a virtual format, with the aim of reviewing the draft handbook and providing input and guidance on the content of the draft handbook. The purpose of this handbook is to strengthen the capacity of national statistical offices and census agencies on the process of transitioning from the traditional census methodology to other approaches involving the use of administrative registers and/or sources. This handbook also aims to elaborate on the key considerations and requirements for transitioning from the traditional census to other census methodologies, and on the importance of building institutional capacity and infrastructure for maintaining statistical registers. Once finalized, this handbook will become a component of the United Nations methodological framework for population and housing censuses in the 2020 round, anchored by the UN principles and recommendations for population and housing censuses, and consisting of handbooks on census management, census editing, use of contemporary technologies for census-taking, measuring migration and post-enumeration surveys – all available at: https://unstats.un.org/unsd/demographic-social/census/index.cshtml.

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The members of the IAEG-GS virtually convened for the 15th annual meeting on 6, 7 and 8 December 2021. The meeting was organized by the Social and Gender Statistics Section of the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD), the Secretariat of the Group.

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The Second United Nations Expert Group Meeting on the Impact of the Covid-19 Pandemic on Conducting Population and Housing Censuses and on Census Data Quality Concerns is organized by the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD) with the aim of continuing the monitoring of challenges in conducting population and housing censuses during the Covid-19 pandemic. The meeting will provide an opportunity to discuss alternative solutions in designing census operations conducted during the pandemic as well as address data quality and comparability issues resulting from pandemic protocols and recent changes in the design of census operations.

The meeting will address the following four main topics:

i) potential adjustments in census questionnaires to improve the relevance and quality of census data;
ii) innovative approaches in designing census operations for reducing the adverse impact of the pandemic;
iii) assessment of the quality of population and housing censuses concerning the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on process quality and output quality; and,
iv) effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on data analysis and comparability overtime.

The meeting will bring together census experts from NSOs, census agencies, international and regional organizations to explore challenges, good practices and lessons learned in conducting censuses during the Covid-19 pandemic.

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The United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD), in collaboration with the Swiss Confederation, is organizing the 8th Global Forum on Gender Statistics under the Global Gender Statistics Programme and the guidance of the Inter-Agency and Expert Group on Gender Statistics (IAEG-GS).

The Forum will bring together producers, users and communicators of gender statistics from national and international statistical offices, other government agencies, international organizations, academia, civil society, private sector, media and the donor community. On this occasion, the Forum is taking place as countries come to face the consequences of the COVID-19 global pandemic and assess the effectiveness of their responses to this crisis and its long-lasting effects.

The common thread during the two-day discussions will be an outlook of the aftermath of the pandemic. Beyond the impact of COVID-19, the Forum’s intention is to tease out those aspects of gender equality and the production of gender statistics that have changed -highlighting how and why.

Panelists and audience will discuss ways to improve data and evidence for gender policies, reflecting on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on all aspects of women’s and men’s lives, and what it means for keeping the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development on track.

The 8th Global Forum on Gender Statistics will be the last event on the “Road to Bern” series, taking place right before the 3rd World Data Forum (UNWDF 2021) to be held in Bern and hosted by the Government of Switzerland.

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The United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD) organized the United Nations Expert Group Meeting on the Impact of the Covid-19 Pandemic on Conducting Population and Housing Censuses and on Census Data Quality Concerns, took place online from 9 to 12 February 2021. The Expert Group Meeting had extensive discussions on major changes in the design of census activities in response to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and challenges in producing timely, accurate and reliable small area statistics during the pandemic. The meeting also addressed data quality issues caused by the pandemic protocols and recent changes in the design of census operation and discussed potential challenges in comparing the results of censuses conducted during the pandemic with the results of previous censuses.

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Bringing together gender statisticians and experts from the international, regional and national institutions that are IAEG-GS members, the closed (/invitation-only) 14th IAEG-GS Meeting will: (a) review on-going national, regional and global initiatives to improve evidence for gender-relevant policies, including the development and implementation of international statistical methods in the context of COVID-19; (b) discuss and review on-going workstreams of the IAEG-GS Advisory Groups; (c) take stock of the latest assessments of progress towards gender equality at the sub-national, national, regional and global levels, as presented in The World’s Women 2020:Trends and Statistics report; and (d) cover other business, including the IAEG-GS annual work programme for 2020-2021 and the preparations for the 8th Global Forum on Gender Statistics in 2021.

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The webinars on the impact of COVID-19 on civil registration and vital statistics are organized to address:

(a) international standards for civil registration and statistics vital and its implementation in countries;

(b) the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on operations and maintenance of civil registration and production of vital statistics;

(c) the short-term and long-term consequences in the recording of vital events due to the pandemic, and

(d) ensuring universal civil registration of all events beyond the COVID-19 pandemic.

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The United Nations Statistics Division collects, compiles and disseminates official demographic and social statistics on a range of topics. In terms of demographic statistics, since 1948, data have been collected annually from national statistical offices, and published in the United Nations Demographic Yearbook Collection. Mandated by the Economic and Social Council in 1947, first published in 1949, and this year marking its 70th Edition, the Demographic Yearbook Collection remains one of the oldest and most respected collection of historical and contemporary demographic data of all countries and areas of the world. During the course of its history, the content, processes and implementing tools of the Demographic Yearbook System have undergone continuous developments, including in recent years developments in online data dissemination, with most of the currently collected data and the majority of historical and current vital statistics published online. It is in the context of further improving and developing the Demographic Yearbook System, that UNSD is organizing this Expert Group Meeting, seeking experts’ inputs on best practices and contemporary approaches in demographic data collection, application of concepts and definitions in national circumstances and improvements of metadata, as well as demographic data and metadata dissemination.

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These webinars are organized by DESA/SD, on behalf of the UN Legal Identity Agenda Task Force, in collaboration with the Global CRVS Group, the Organization of American States and UNECLAC, will target national statisticial officers and civil registrars in Latin America and address (a) international standards for civil registration and vital statistics and their implementation in countries/areas; (b) impact on the operations and maintenance of civil registration and production of vital statistics in the time of COVID-19 pandemic; (c) short- and long-term consequences on registration of vital events due to the pandemic, and (d) beyond COVID-19 pandemic, ensuring universal civil registration of all vital events and production of comprehensive, reliable and regular vital statistics.

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Webinar series Date: 16,18,23,25,30 June, 2020; Time: 7am -8am(EDT)

Webinar No. 1 (Anglophone 16 June, Francophone 18 June)
International standards, methodological framework for civil registration and vital statistics and the UN Legal Identity Agenda

Webinar No. 2 (Anglophone 23 June, Francophone 25 June)
Introducing UN LIA survey on the COVID-19 impact on civil registration operations, sharing country experiences on the impact of COVID 19 on CRVS system and planning for the future-Reports from Countries

Webinar No. 3 (30 June)
Experience sharing from other region: New Zealand and Malaysia CRVS Business Continuity Strategies During the COVID-19 Crisis

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United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD) is organizing an Expert Group Meeting on International Migration Statistic, to be held virtually on 4-5 and 8-9 June 2020.

The Expert Group Meeting will be convened in the framework of the second revision of the UN Recommendations on Statistics of International Migration, as requested by the Statistical Commission at its fiftieth session in 2019 in its decision 50/117. It will bring together the group of experts on migration statistics, established by the Statistical Commission at its forty-ninth session, with the main objective of agreeing on the conceptual framework, and accompanying definitions, data and indicators that will make the foundation of the revision of the current recommendations on statistics of international migration. The outcome of the meeting is expected to be reported to the Statistical Commission for discussion.

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Webinars on COVID-19 impact on civil registration and vital statistics are organized in order to address (a) international standards for civil registration and vital statistics and their implementation in countries/areas; (b) impact on the operations and maintenance of civil registration and production of vital statistics in the time of COVID-19 pandemic; (c) short- and long-term consequences on registration of vital events due to the pandemic, and (d) beyond COVID-19 pandemic, ensuring universal civil registration of all vital events and production of comprehensive, reliable and regular vital statistics. The format of the set of webinars: three 40-minute sessions, spread over a week, with participation of civil registrars and statisticians from ten countries/areas, for a total of twenty participants at sub-regional level. Sessions consist of initial presentation, not extending beyond twenty minutes, followed by discussion and question and answer time.

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