Detailed columns show the largest 12 items and combine the rest into an “other” group. Regional, subregional and unallocated spending remain included.
CEB annual revenue and expenditure, including inter-agency transfers, which are not eliminated. Geography includes country, regional and subregional records. SDG spending includes amounts not allocated to a goal. These dimensions are alternative breakdowns, not additive totals.
“Breakdown / total difference” is a calculated reconciliation amount, not an assigned destination. Known inconsistent geographic labels retain their source names under “Unresolved geographic classification.” The diagram uses CEB organization totals throughout, without substituting Secretariat sub-entities.
CEB financial statistics
Data is sourced from the UN Chief Executives Board (CEB) financial statistics database, covering 48 UN System organizations. CEB data comes from audited financial statements aligned with the Data Standards for UN System-Wide Reporting of Financial Data.
CEB figures aggregate individual entity statements without adjusting for inter-agency transfers, so system-wide totals are inflated by double-counting.
Under the leadership of the Chief Executives Board for Coordination (CEB), the UN has made significant improvements to financial data standardization and reporting over the past few years. For this reason, results are not perfectly comparable year-to-year.
Expenses data
Expenses figures use CEB data as the primary source, covering 48+ UN entities. For years 2019–2023, UN Secretariat data breaks down the “UN” and “UN-DPO” aggregates into their constituent departments and peacekeeping missions (150+ sub-entities). Secretariat data is consolidated and eliminates internal transfers, resulting in slightly lower but more accurate totals than the CEB aggregates they replace.
The number of entities reporting in each period has increased over the past years, and thus the total reported revenue has increased too.
The classification of UN System Functions has changed over time. For comparability purposes, the previous “normative, treaty-related and knowledge creation activities” and “technical cooperation” functions have been aggregated under the new “global agenda and specialised assistance” function.
