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Dataset description and subject overview

Photo by: Pieter Musterd, Creative
Commons, Flickr.

The OECD National Accounts presents a series of databases all containing data related to national accounts and its components including comparable statistics for key indicators. Countries covered vary but generally include OECD countries and a select group of non-OECD countries. Time coverage varies but series begin as early as 1955 onwards.

The Annual National Accounts Volume I, Main Aggregates database covers expenditure-based gross domestic product (GDP), output-based GDP, income-based GDP, disposable income, and saving and net lending. Data are expressed in millions of current and constant (base year 2000) national currency.
Years covered: 1970 onwards

The Annual National Accounts Volume I, Comparative tables database covers Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and Household final consumption expenditure. These data are based on current and 1995 exchange rates and purchasing power parities (PPPs). They are also provided per person in addition to overall.
Years covered: 1970 onwards

The Annual National Accounts Volume II, Detailed Tables, Main Aggregates database covers, in addition to main aggregates, detailed national accounts data for most OECD countries. It includes detailed breakdown by kind of activity for gross value added (current and constant prices), components of value added, gross fixed capital formation and employment. It also includes final consumption expenditure of households by purpose, simplified accounts for three main sectors (general government, corporations and households) and detailed accounts by institutional sectors (non-financial corporations, financial corporations, general government and its sub-sectors, households and non-profit institutions serving households). Data are shown for 30 OECD countries back to the 1970s in most cases, expressed in national currency (in euros for euro area countries).
Years covered: 1970 onwards


The Annual National Accounts Volume II, Detailed Tables, Population and Employment database covers detailed accounts for population and employment. Employment data are detailed by industry.
Years covered: 1970 onwards


The National Accounts of OECD Countries: Volume IIIa - Financial Accounts database covers financial accounts of OECD countries and includes financial transactions (both net acquisition of financial assets and net incurrence of liabilities), by institutional sector (non-financial corporations, financial corporations, general government, households and non-profit institutions serving households, total economy and rest of the world) and by financial operation.
Data, based on the System of National Accounts (SNA 1993), are expressed in national currency (in euros for euro area countries).
Years covered: 1970 onwards


The National Accounts of OECD Countries: Volume IIIb - Financial Balance Sheets - Stocks database covers financial balance sheets of OECD countries and includes financial stocks (both financial assets and liabilities), by institutional sector (non-financial corporations, financial corporations, general government, households and non-profit institutions serving households, total economy and rest of the world) and by financial instrument.
Data, based on the System of National Accounts (SNA 1993), are expressed in national currency (in euros for euro area countries).
Years covered: 1970 onwards

The National Accounts of OECD Countries - Volume IV: General Government Accounts is a new annual publication, dedicated to government finance which is based on the System of National Accounts 1993 (SNA 1993) and is part of a set of annual publications related to national accounts.
It includes tables showing government aggregates and balances for the production, income and financial accounts as well as detailed tax and social contribution receipts and a breakdown of expenditure of general government by function, according to the harmonised international classification: Classification of the Functions of Government (COFOG). These detailed accounts are available for the general government sector. Data also cover the following sub-sectors, according to availability: central government, state government, local government and social security funds.

The publication presents, for each member country, a coherent set of four tables (see Full documentation for a detailed explanation):

1. The first table is a Summary of the government aggregates and balances most referred to by analysts for international comparisons.
2. The second table is the General government account (SNA 1993, simplified presentation). It comprises the usual sequence of national accounts, including the financial accounts (flows and stocks). This includes also two aggregates which are relevant for economic analysis and consistent with the usual SNA transactions: Total revenue and Total expenditure of government.
3. The third table is dedicated to Detailed Tax and Social Contribution Receipts. These detailed receipts are broken down according to the SNA classification.
4. The fourth table is the breakdown of Expenditure by Function, according to the harmonised classification at international level COFOG. In addition to the breakdown of Total expenditure, the table shows the breakdown by function of Compensation of employees and of Gross capital formation at the general government level.

Data are expressed in national currencies.
Years covered: 1970 onwards

The Annual National Accounts Volume I, Exchange Rate, PPPs, and Population database covers exchange rates and purchasing power parities (PPPs) in national currency per US dollar and populations as mid-year estimates in thousands of people.
Note: These data are to used for comparisons within the Annual National Accounts databases only.
Years covered: 1970 onwards

The Annual National Accounts Volume I, Population and Employment database covers 51 population and employment variables according to national accounts. Data include variables such as total employment, self-employment, and employment by industry sector.
Years covered: 1970 onwards

The Quarterly National Accounts

The OECD's quarterly national accounts (QNA) dataset presents data collected from 30 member countries and 5 non-member countries on the basis of a standardised questionnaire as well as countries' own definitions and classifications. It contains a wide selection of generally seasonally adjusted quarterly series most widely used for economic analysis from 1960 or whenever available:

• GDP expenditure and output approaches (current prices and volume estimates);
• GDP income approach (current prices);
• Gross fixed capital formation (current prices and volume estimates) broken down separately by type of asset or product and by institutional sector;
• Disposable income and Real disposable income components;
• Saving and net lending (current prices);
• Population and Employment (in persons);
• Employment by industry (in persons and hours worked);
• Compensation of employees (current prices);
• Household final consumption expenditure by durability (current prices and volume estimates).

The statistics presented in QNA are compiled in accordance with the System of National Accounts 1993 (1993 SNA) for all OECD member countries except Australia (2008 SNA).

User Documentation

• National Accounts User Guide (OECD) Vol. I
• National Accounts User Guide (OECD) Vol II
• National Accounts for OECD Countries Vol. IIIa and IIIb Financial Accounts - Flows
• National Accounts User Guide (OECD) Vol IV
• National Accounts for Non-Member Countries
• Quarterly National Accounts: Sources and Methods used by OECD Member countries
• Quarterly National Accounts Tips
• Quarterly National Accounts - on Beyond 20/20
• System of National Accounts Glossary

The OECD National Account statistics hosted by ESDS International are delivered via Beyond 20/20 WDS. A worked example using Beyond 20/20 WDS and the OECD Main Economic indicators is available in html and pdf formats.

Note: You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader software to read documents in pdf format. You can download it free of charge from the Adobe website.

Accessing the OECD National Accounts

Photo by: larskflem,
Creative Commons, Flickr.

• Access OECD data

To access the ESDS International macro-economic datasets you must be a user from a UK higher or further education institution. We cannot provide data to users outside of this community due to the data re-distribution license agreements we have with our data providers. If you are a member of a UK higher or further education institution access to the macro-economic datasets is provided free of charge.

Access to data requires ESDS registration and uses the federated access management authentication system. Registration is a simple online process - go to the How to Register web page at www.esds.ac.uk/aandp/access/access.asp to begin the process.

Once you have registered with ESDS and attempt to access one of the macro-economic datasets, you will automatically be prompted to agree to additional dataset specific conditions if they apply.

Countries in the OECD National Accounts

Countries covered vary, but most databases include the following countries:

Australia
Austria
Belgium
Canada
Czech Republic
Denmark
Finland
France
Germany
Greece
Hungary
Iceland
Ireland
Italy
Japan
Korea
Luxembourg
Mexico
Netherlands
New Zealand
Norway
Poland
Portugal
Slovak Republic
Spain
Sweden
Switzerland
Turkey
United Kingdom

Periodicity and Time Range

• The OECD National Accounts contains annual and quarterly data and runs from 1955 onwards depending upon the series.
• This database will be updated annually and quarterly- see the latest update page for further information.