System of National Accounts

The System of National Accounts or SNA (until 1993 known as the United Nations System of National Accounts or UNSNA) is an international standard system of concepts and methods for creating national accounts. It is nowadays used by almost all countries in the world; SNA-type national accounts are the world's most important source of official macroeconomic statistics.

SNA aspires to provide an integrated, complete and up-to-date system of standard national accounts, for the purpose of economic analysis, policymaking and decisionmaking. When individual countries use SNA standards to guide the construction of their own national accounting systems, it results in much better data quality and better 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 in 1953. Revised and expanded SNA manuals were subsequently published in 1960, 1964, 1968, 1993 and 2008. The pre-edit version for the SNA 2025 revision was adopted by the United Nations Statistical Commission at its 56th Session in March 2025. 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 and interest groups from all nations.

SNA has now been adopted or applied in more than 200 separate countries, territories and areas, although in many cases with some adaptations for unusual local circumstances. Nowadays, whenever people in the world are using macroeconomic data, of their own nation or foreign nations, they are most often using information sourced (partly or completely) from SNA-type accounts, or from social accounts "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.

Adherence to SNA standards by national statistics offices (NSO's) and by governments has always been strongly encouraged by the United Nations. However, using SNA guidelines is in principle voluntary and not mandatory. What countries are able to do, will depend on available capacity, local priorities, and the existing state of statistical development. 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 quality, gaining access to data, exchange of data, data dissemination, cost-saving, technical support, and scientific advice for data production. 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.

The SNA-based European System of Accounts (ESA) is an exceptional case, because using ESA standards is compulsory for all member states of the European Union. This legal requirement for uniform accounting standards exists primarily because of mutual financial claims and obligations by member governments and EU organizations. Another exception is North Korea (the DPRK). North Korea is a member of the United Nations since 1991, but does not use SNA as a framework for its economic data production. Although North Korea’s Central Bureau of Statistics does traditionally produce economic statistics, using a modified version of the Material Product System, its macroeconomic data area are nowadays not (or very rarely) published for general release. UNDP and the Bank of Korea produce a few estimates; the accuracy of the Bank of Korea estimates is in dispute.

The global grid of the SNA social accounting system continues to develop and expand, and is coordinated by five international organizations: United Nations Statistics Division, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, and Eurostat. The European Commission is also involved, via membership of the Intersecretariat Working Group on National Accounts (ISWGNA) set up by the United Nations Statistical Commission (UNSC) to promote cooperation between statistical agencies worldwide.

There are also other UN organizations which contribute to SNA development, in specific areas. For example, UN regional commissions assist with SNA capacity building, technical/scientific advice and accounts design (discussed below). The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) created a conceptual framework for measuring illicit financial flows (IFF's) which is consistent with SNA concepts.