Publications

The Demographic Yearbook 2009-2010 is the sixty-first in a series published by the United Nations since 1948. It contains tables including a world summary of selected demographic statistics, statistics on the size, distribution and trends in national populations, fertility, foetal mortality, infant and maternal mortality, general mortality, nuptiality and divorce. Data are shown by urban/rural residence, as available. In addition, the volume provides Technical Notes, a synoptic table, a historical index and a listing of the issues of the Demographic Yearbook published to date.

The number of deaths of children under the age of five declined from 12.4 million in 1990 to 8.1 million in 2009, which means nearly 12,000 fewer children die each day. Some of the world’s poorest countries have also made impressive gains in the fight against poverty, but the least developed countries still lag in efforts to improve living standards.

The recovery of the global economy continues, with strong output growth in developing countries and a weaker economic performance in developed countries. Higher energy and food prices have created upward pressure on inflation rates, underpinning the tightening of monetary policy, especially in many developing countries. Employment trends have been improving, but major challenges such as rising long-term unemployment and high youth unemployment in a number of economies remain. World trade of goods and services expanded stronger than expected last year, marking a strong rebound from the severe contraction in 2009 with developing countries, particularly Asian economies with large shares in…

The publication predicts weaker global growth in 2011 and 2012 as the recovery has lost momentum since the middle of 2010. World gross product is forecast to expand by 3.1 per cent in 2011 and 3.5 per cent in 2012, following estimated growth of 3.6 per cent in 2010. The report emphasizes that the outlook remains uncertain, surrounded by serious downside risks. It further indicates that, in the short run, more fiscal stimulus will be needed to reinvigorate the global recovery, but that it will need to be better coordinated with monetary policies and reoriented to provide stronger support to employment generation.

The financial fallout in the USA which rapidly turned into a global economic crisis underscored the interconnectedness of the global economy. The economic and financial crisis came on top of several other crises. Skyrocketing but highly volatile world food and energy prices evidenced a decades-long neglect of food agriculture and failure to rein in increasingly speculative energy markets. And the effects of climate change, which is already a clear and present danger whose consequences are being felt in many part of the world in the form of more frequent and severe droughts and excessive rainfall, are compounding other crises.

These multiple dramas have unfolded simultaneously and…

The world continues to make advances towards the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), despite the global economic downturn, but the rate of improvement remains too slow and countries must step up their efforts if the MDGs are to be achieved by their target date of 2015, a new United Nations report says. The annual assessment report, released today by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, shows that the world has made huge strides in reducing extreme poverty...

The world economy continued to improve in the first half of 2010, leading to a slight upward revision in the United Nations outlook for global growth. The pace of the recovery is too weak, however, to close the global output gap left by the crisis. The recovery is also uneven across countries. While growth prospects for some developing countries are encouraging, economic activity is lacklustre in developed economies and below potential elsewhere in the developing world.

Important weaknesses in the global economy remain. Despite the large amounts of liquidity injected into the financial system, credit growth remains feeble in major developed economies and the process of financial…

The United Nations Statistical Yearbook is an annual compilation of a wide range of international economic, social and environmental statistics for over 200 countries and areas of the world, compiled from sources including UN agencies and other international, national and specialized organizations. The fifty-second issue contains data available to the Statistics Division as of June 2008 and presents them in 68 tables on topics including: agriculture; balance of payments; communication; development assistance; education; energy; environment; finance and gender.

The world economy is on the mend. After a sharp, broad and synchronized global downturn in late 2008 and early 2009, an increasing number of countries have registered positive quarterly growth of gross domestic product (GDP), along with a notable recovery in international trade and global industrial production. World equity markets have also rebounded and risk premiums on borrowing have fallen.

The recovery is uneven and conditions for sustained growth remain fragile. Credit conditions are still tight in major developed economies, where many major financial institutions need to continue the process of deleveraging and cleansing their balance-sheets. The rebound in domestic demand…

The Millennium Development Goals report presents a yearly assessment of global progress towards achieving the MDGs. It is prepared by the Statistics Division at DESA on the basis of input provided by the members of the Inter-agency and Expert Group on MDG Indicators. Less than six years away from the 2015 deadline to achieve the MDGs, this report warns that despite many successes, overall progress has been...

Faced with the worst recession since the Second World War, the United Nations baseline forecast for world economic growth has been revised downward compared with the pessimistic scenario of the World Economic Situation and Prospects 2009 published in January. The world economy is expected to shrink by 2.6 per cent in 2009, after an expansion of 2.1 per cent in 2008 and nearly 4 per cent per year during the period 2004-2007. While a mild recovery is expected in 2010, risks remain on the downside. Developing countries are disproportionately hard hit by the crisis.

The global policy response has been unprecedented, including monetary, financial and fiscal measures to stabilize…

The world economy is mired in the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. What first appeared as a sub-prime mortgage crack in the United States housing market during the summer of 2007 began widening during 2008 into deeper fissures across the global financial landscape and ended with the collapse of major banking institutions, precipitous falls on stock markets across the world and a credit freeze. These financial shockwaves have now triggered a full-fledged economic crisis, with most advanced countries already in recession and the outlook for emerging and other developing economies deteriorating rapidly, including those with a recent…