United Nations Statistics Division International Family of Classifications United Nations Statistics Division EXPERT GROUP MEETING ON INTERNATIONAL STATISTICAL CLASSIFICATIONS 6-8 September 2017, New York

Outline Background / Past activities Scope / membership Family website Issues / Processes Questions for the EG

Background / Past activities The old concept of the Family of International Classifications: Was restricted to very few classifications / domains Included regional and national derived classifications Did not provide users with knowledge of the existence of classifications in other domains or secondary classifications in the domains covered Did not provide information about the “quality” of the classifications

Background / Past activities At the 2011, 2013 and 2015 meetings, the Expert Group initiated a process to revise the concept of the Family The Family should cover international classifications from all statistical domains These may be: Classifications that were officially approved as standard classifications by the UNSC (or similar) Other classifications that are internationally used and have become de-facto standards in their fields Even if originally created for regional or national purposes The EG should discuss operational criteria for this !

Background / Past activities Based on a review of statistical standards and frameworks, a draft list of such classifications has been prepared for the 2015 EGM Detailed information has been collected about these classifications In the process, some modifications to the draft list have been made, based on feedback from custodians The current list includes 162 classifications Data (complete or incomplete) is available for 99 of them

UNSD website The list of classifications in the Family and the information collected is now available on the UNSD website (as a test version) https://unstats.un.org/unsd/classifications/Family

Issues (1) The classifications in the Family are allocated to statistical domains A standard form of display groups them according to their allocated domains To allow users to identify all classifications relevant for a domain How should allocation to multiple domains be handled? E.g. for general classifications, like CPC What about very general classifications, like territorial classifications?

Issues (2) The Family focuses on currently operational classifications Often, the inclusion of previous version may be useful, since statistics are still compiled using those E.g. ISIC 3, CPCprov However, the Family is not intended to become a list of all classifications that ever existed Not realistic Where do we draw the line? Can the EG provide operational criteria?

Issues (3) How do we deal with cases where a classification is a de-facto international standard in a domain, but does not meet basic criteria? How do we incorporate the Grading criteria (agreed to at the last EGM) in the Family? Is such a statement about the quality of a classification useful and desirable? How can the EG set up a process for a rigorous review?

Questions Can the EG: agree on a mechanism to verify that a) the classifications listed are used internationally, even though they may have been created for regional purposes and b) no other internationally used classifications should replace classifications in the current list, resulting in an approval of the current list; recommend ways and mechanisms to keep the list of classifications in the Family and their respective detailed information up-to-date and discuss a framework for regular update cycles; comment on the planned approach the handling of multi-domain classifications; advise on the allocation to sub-domains; recommend a treatment of general classifications, like country classifications; discuss the need and boundaries (or suitable criteria) of the inclusion of superseded versions of classifications in the list of the Family; discuss an adequate procedure and treatment for classifications failing to meet the basic criteria; comment on the format chosen for displaying the information on the website, including grading information

Thank you