The UN Statistical Commission (UNSC) endorsed the first-ever global statistical framework to facilitate better understanding of and response to increasing disaster risks. The Global Disaster-related Statistics Framework is an integrated statistical framework for organizing social, economic, and environmental information related to hazardous events and disasters. It helps measure their occurrences and impacts, risk factors, and activities aimed at reducing risks.

Prepared by the Inter-Agency Expert Group on Disaster-related Statistics, the Framework was endorsed by the UNSC at its 57th session. In developing the Framework, the Group followed a two-year-long consultative and substantive process, building on existing efforts, such as global statistical frameworks, disaster risk reduction (DRR) and losses and damages assessment guidelines, and geospatial frameworks.

According to the Report of the Inter-Agency and Expert Group on Disaster-related Statistics (E/CN.3/2026/20), the Framework provides coherent concepts, classifications, and data structures to aid the production of standardized and harmonized disaster-related statistics at the national and subnational levels. In so doing, it promotes international consistency and comparability.

The Framework represents internationally agreed guidance on how countries produce statistics on disaster frequency and intensity, economic losses and infrastructure damage, population and environmental risk and impacts, and efforts to reduce disaster risk.

The Framework responds to the call to go beyond gross domestic product (GDP) as the primary measure of development progress. By providing a more comprehensive evidence base for government planning and budgeting, it equips countries to measure not only direct damage from disasters, but also exposure, vulnerability, and capacity to cope. It also aligns with the Sendai Framework for DRR and supports reporting on the SDGs and the Global Goal on Adaptation (GGA).

Co-chaired by the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR), the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), and the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), the Inter-Agency Expert Group on Disaster-related Statistics developed the Framework in response to a 2019 UNSC decision to advance a common statistical framework on disaster-related statistics.

UNSC 57 convened in New York, US, from 3-6 March 2026. The UNSC oversees the work of the UN Statistics Division (UNSD) and is a Functional Commission of the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). [Publication: Global Disaster-Related Statistics Framework] [ESCAP Press Release]