The System of National Accounts or SNA (until 1993 known as the United Nations System of National Accounts or UNSNAThe name-change from "United Nations System of National Accounts (UNSNA)" to "System of National Accounts (SNA)" occurred during the 1993 revision of the SNA. Other major international organizations — the OECD, IMF, World Bank, and Eurostat — had become significantly involved in the development, revision, and dissemination of the SNA.) is an international standard system of concepts and methods for compiling national accounts."The System of National Accounts (SNA) is the internationally agreed standard set of recommendations on how to compile measures of economic activity in accordance with strict accounting conventions based on economic principles. The recommendations are expressed in terms of a set of concepts, definitions, classifications and accounting rules that comprise the internationally agreed standard for measuring such items as gross domestic product (GDP), the most frequently quoted indicator of economic performance." SNA 2025, chapter 1, para. 1.3. The system is nowadays used by almost all countries in the world. SNA-type national accounts are among the world's most important sources of macroeconomic statistics. They provide essential data for empirical macroeconomic models and economic forecasting.There exist many other producers of economic statistics in society. For example, specific government organizations, banks, large corporations, industry institutes, scientific institutes, and stock exchanges. However, these organizations do not necessarily use international standards for their own data. Insofar as SNA statisticians make use of their data, this data may have to be adjusted to conform to the applicable SNA standards.
When governments use SNA standards to guide the construction of their country's national accounts, it results in much better data quality and data comparability (between countries and across time). In turn, that helps to form more accurate judgements about economic situations, and to put economic issues in correct proportion — nationally and internationally.
The first international standard was published by the United Nations in 1953.United Nations, A System of National Accounts and Supporting Tables, Studies in Methods, Series F No 2 Rev. 1, New York: United Nations, 1953. Additions and revisions were published in 1960, 1964, 1968, 1993 and 2008. For a brief historical summary of the revisions, see e.g. the relevant section in the manuals System of National Accounts 1993 and System of National Accounts 2008. The SNA manuals are supplemented with technical handbooks on specific topics in SNA accounts production. These handbooks can usually be downloaded from the UNSD site. The OECD, IMF, World Bank and Eurostat also publish guidelines and handbooks on specific topics. After five years of work,Preparatory discussions for the SNA revision began in 2018/2019. See: Eurostat, "Toward the System of National Accounts (SNA) Updates: Ongoing Work on the SNA Research Agenda and Options for a Possible 2008 SNA Update Process". Discussion paper, BOPCOM—19/11, 32th Meeting of the IMF Committee on Balance of Payments Statistics, Thimphu (Bhutan), October 29 – November 1, 2019. In March 2020, the United Nations Statistical Commission officially initiated an update process of the 2008 SNA, targeting a release date for the revised standard in March 2025 (cf. IWGNA Webinar on SNA Update for the Group of Experts on National Accounts, 1 September 2020 (Working paper 1.2, 5 August 2020). At its 51st session in 2020, the United Nations Statistical Commission requested a roadmap for the revision and the update programme was endorsed at its 52nd session in 2021. See also: IWGNA, "A historical record of the update of the System of National Accounts, 2008". Paper SNA/M1.25/1 presented at the 28th meeting of the Advisory Expert Group on National Accounts. Luxembourg 21 – 23 October 2025; Herman Smith, "The 2008 SNA update". UNSD, October 2022. including global consultation with a thousand experts, the pre-edit version for the SNA 2025 revision was adopted by the United Nations Statistical Commission at its 56th Session in March 2025, together with the new Balance of Payments and International Investment Position Manual ("BPM7").The SNA 2025 manual (1024+ pages, much bigger than the SNA 2008 manual with 722 pages) is available only in its pre-edit form. United Nations Statistical Commission, Report on the fifty-sixth session (4–7 March 2025), Economic and Social Council Official Records, 2025, Supplement No. 4. Introducing the System of National Accounts 2025; a powerpoint overview of the changes in SNA 2025 is provided in: Peter van de Ven, "The General Outline of the 2025 SNA", Towards the 2025 SNA seminar, Group of Experts on National Accounts, Geneva, 25 – 27 April 2023. The implementation strategy is sketched in Strategy for Implementing 2025 SNA and BPM7. New York: Inter-secretariat Working Group on National Accounts. New York: United Nations Statistics Division, 2024.A wikipedia overview of the changes in SNA 2025 can only be provided when the final SNA 2025 text is published. The finalized version of SNA 2025 will be published in 2026, and will be made available in all six official UN languages (Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish). Behind the accounts system, there is also a system of people: the people who are cooperating around the world to produce the statistics, for use by government and international agencies, businesspeople, media, academics, political parties and interest groups from all nations.For example, the different task teams behind the SNA 2025 revision are listed in the Towards the 2025 SNA document, on the UNSD site.
SNA guidelines have now been adopted in more than 200 separate countries, territories and areas,The "territories and areas" which use SNA guidelines to produce their social accounts are detailed in the UNSD's annual National Accounts Statistics: Main Aggregates and Detailed Tables series. These entities include four types: (1) dependent territories (e.g. Greenland, Bermuda, Cook Islands, and Gibraltar). (2) Regions with a special status (e.g. Hong Kong SAR and Macao SAR). (3) Non-sovereign islands and overseas departments (e.g. Martinique, Guadeloupe, and Réunion), and (4) UN-administered areas and other special territories (e.g. Palestinian Territories and Kosovo). The United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD) also provides a Country/Area List detailing all entities for which economic data are collected by UNSD. This list includes both separate territories or regions beyond the UN's 193 member states, and countries and areas outside the SNA framework. See also: List of UN member states, List of sovereign states, Lists of non-sovereign nations, List of territories administered by the United Nations, UN list of non-self-governing territories, List of states with limited recognition, List of sovereign states and dependent territories in Africa, List of countries and territories by the United Nations geoscheme, List of sovereign states in the 2020s and Countries Not in the United Nations 2025. For stateless nations, see: James Minahan, Encyclopedia of the stateless nations – ethnic and national groups around the world (4 Volumes). Westport, Connecticut/London: Greenwood Press, 2002. although in many cases with some adaptations for local circumstances.UNSD provides a list of affiliated statistics offices in the world.. In the European Union, "national statistics offices" (NSO’s) are called "national statistical institutes" (NSI’s). Eurostat provides a country list for national statistical institutes (NSI's) and other national statistics authorities in the EU, but not with contact information. Whenever people in the world are using macroeconomic data, they are most often using information sourced (partly or completely) from SNA-type accounts or from economic data sets "strongly influenced" by SNA concepts, designs, data and classifications. Economists and officials across the world depend on timely SNA data, to monitor economic activity, evaluate policy options, and make strategic decisions.
Organizational approach Since 1953, the United Nations and its partner organizations have always encouraged national statistics offices ("NSO's"In this article, the abbreviation "NSO" is used for all national statistics offices. In the European Union, NSO’s are officially called "national statistical institutes" (NSI’s). Eurostat provides a country list for NSI's and other national statistics authorities in the EU, but does not provide contact information.) to apply SNA standards. However, using SNA guidelines to compile national accounts is voluntary and not mandatory.There is no scientific evidence or case that SNA is a "totalitarian system" seeking to force a certain ideology on the public, or that it is a "conspiracy for world domination". Nothing prevents countries from produce their own type of economic statistics alongside SNA-type statistics or overlapping with SNA data sets. Anyone can access SNA data, and interpret it according to their own choices, beliefs and concerns, although economists are normally trained to use the data in appropriate ways for scientific purposes. What SNA offers, is an agreed set of standard concepts, methods, measures and a common language, as a tool used to interpret and compare the economies of the world. For recent insights about the international politics of the SNA endeavour, see: Daniel Joseph Derock, The politics of global statistical harmonization. Phd thesis, University of Amsterdam, 2022. A broad critical-historical appraisal of the social accounting endeavour and its methods is available in: Rodney Edvinsson, An Economic Philosophy of Production, Work and Consumption: A Transhistorical Framework. Routledge Studies in the History of Economics, 2023. What countries are able to do, will depend on available capacity, local priorities, and the existing state of statistical development.See World Bank Statistical Performance Indicators (SPI) and the World Bank Statistical Capacity Building site. Government agencies usually determine their own policies for economic statistics, within the framework of local laws. However, cooperation with SNA has many advantages in terms of data comparability and data quality, gaining access to data, exchange of data, data dissemination, cost-saving, technical support, and scientific advice for data production.For more detail about the capacity building work of UNSD across the world, see: SNA Implementation Activities of UNSD. For information on the UN approach to managing the production of statistics, see the UN Handbook on Management and Organization of National Statistical Systems, 4th edition 2021. Most countries see the advantages, and are willing to participate. Moreover, if reliable and up-to-date SNA macroeconomic data is not available, this could hinder the financial strategies of governments.If for example a government requests a loan from a foreign creditor, this creditor needs economic data to judge (1) the capacity to repay the debt, (2) what the sovereign credit risks are, and (3) on what terms the loan could be granted. Sovereign credit ratings are influenced by economic data reports, so the data has to be available.