The System of National Accounts 1993 was adopted by the United Nations Statistical Commission during its 27th session in 1993 as the international standard for compilation of national accounts statistics and for the international reporting of comparable national accounting data. It is published jointly by the United Nations, the Commission of the European Communities, the International Monetary Fund, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, and the World Bank.

The System of National Accounts consists of an integrated set of macroeconomic accounts, balance sheets and tables based on internationally agreed concepts, definitions, classifications and accounting rules. Together, these principles provide a comprehensive accounting framework within which economic data can be compiled and presented in a format that is designed for purposes of economic analysis, decision-taking and policy-making.

Being a conceptual framework, it does not attempt to provide comprehensive compilation guidance on how to make estimates nor is it descriptive in setting priorities which accounts and tables should be implemented or expresses norms on the frequency and format of their presentation. For practical compilation guidance, international agencies have developed separate handbooks like the handbooks of national accounting prepared by the United Nations Statistics Division.

As market economies and economic interactions in the world evolved, the 1993 SNA has changed from its 1953 and 1968 version. Reference materials about the revision of the 1968 SNA are available under Towards the 1993 SNA. There historical materials (minutes of meetings and other reports) reflecting the discussions that led to the adoption of the 1993 SNA are presented.

Aspects of globalisation and the appearances of new economic phenomena warranted a comprehensive rather than an incremental update of 1993 SNA and have led to the development of the 2008 SNA. All information about the update progress can be found on the Towards the 2008 SNA website.