World counts on the U.N., statistically

UNITED NATIONS | The United Nations - often criticized for wayward peacekeepers, a selective approach to human rights and a reputation for swallowing money - does at least one thing well.

No other body gathers data and crunches numbers with as much breadth and depth as the world body and its agencies.

In its 60 years of compiling and analyzing statistics, the United Nations has become the initial source of comparative figures used by governments, activists, relief organizations and think tanks around the world.

Without the U.N. statistical bureaus, analysts say, it would be impossible to know that carbon emissions have increased by 80 percent since the mid-1970s, that about 4 billion cell-phone accounts were in use in 2006, or that the number of Afghan households cultivating opium poppies has increased 14 percent since 2005 to 509,000.

“This is indeed a unique role that the United Nations and its agencies play,” said Michele Montas, spokeswoman for U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. “These statistics … are essential for our own humanitarian assistance to refugees and displaced people, for school feeding programs or to support women’s participation in political life.”

“I view the U.N.’s principal role as setting standards so that we have identical statistics from across the world,” said an official with the U.S. Office of Management and Budget who has worked closely with the U.N. Statistical Commission.

“It’s a technical effort, not a political one,” added the official, who asked not to be named because she is not authorized to speak to the press.

The U.N. Statistical Commission, which oversees the organization’s information-gathering, also advises governments on how to conform to international standards to ensure that oranges are not compared with olives.

With the United Nations halfway into a 15-year global anti-poverty program called the Millennium Development Goals, accurate figures are crucial to illustrate how far some countries have progressed and where more concentrated efforts are most needed.

Statistics can tell detailed stories that anecdotal impressions cannot. For example:

c923 million people are classified as malnourished (U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization).

c536,000 women die in childbirth each year (UNICEF).

c1.4 billion people live on less than $1.25 a day (International Labor Organization).

cDirect foreign investment reached a record $1.83 trillion in 2007 (U.N. Conference on Trade and Development).

Without these statistics, it would be impossible to know the world in all its complexity and nuance.

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