Making global data easier to explore

UN System Data Commons is an open, AI-ready platform integrating critical global statistics into a single searchable resource.

Every year, entities across the United Nations system compile data to track challenges that affect how we work, learn, stay healthy, and care for our loved ones.

These agencies work with some of the highest-integrity data in the world. But the statistics needed to solve big global challenges have lived in separate silos, organized in conflicting formats across, and within, different UN system organizations. Connecting the dots often meant months of painstaking manual work for data analysts before any real analysis could begin.

To solve this challenge, the UN system is launching the UN System Data Commons—an open-source platform built on Data Commons by Google that unites global statistics into one interconnected resource known as an AI-ready knowledge graph. With support from Google.org to the UN Foundation, the project makes critical data universally accessible, helping everyone from researchers to leaders track global progress in real time.

Connected data for complex global efforts

Many of society’s greatest challenges — from public health to poverty eradication — cannot be solved with a single data source. Effectively tackling these crises requires understanding how different datasets intersect.

The UN System Data Commons helps uncover these intersections by unifying siloed datasets, so that they can speak the same language. The platform automatically integrates metrics, timelines, and geographic boundaries into a single interconnected environment. This gives analysts more time to focus on uncovering key trends and designing evidence-based solutions, instead of formatting spreadsheets.

Natural language features for easier exploring