Key Findings
Eight findings, each traceable to a published source.
Each figure comes from flows.json and can be reproduced from the cited dataset. The ⓘ next to each number gives source, years, formula and limitation.
7.8%
Core share of revenue
Core (un-earmarked) contributions were 7.8% of total revenue in 2024 and 11.4% of voluntary contributions. The lowest value in the series was 7.7% in 2020.
CEB Financial Statistics 2011–2024
Funding Compact
60.6%
Earmarked share of revenue
Earmarked contributions rose from 49.6% of revenue in 2011 to 60.6% in 2024, while the assessed share fell from 33.5% to 20.2%.
CEB Financial Statistics 2011–2024
Earmarking
30.6%
Largest government contributor
The United States provided 30.6% of all government contributions in 2024 ($14.3B). The second-largest government contributor provided 10.2%.
CEB Revenue by Government Donor 2024
Donor concentration
7
Entities with one majority donor
In 7 entities one government provides more than half of government contributions: UNHCR 57.9%, IOM 55.2%, WFP 52.3% and UNAIDS 52.2% (United States), UNITAID (France), UNICRI (Italy) and UNSSC (Germany).
CEB Revenue by Government Donor 2024
Donor concentration
-37%
Year-on-year volatility
WFP revenue changed by -37% ($5.3B) between 2022 and 2023. 2022 was an exceptional peak in the series.
CEB Financial Statistics 2021–2024
Funding predictability
$290.6B
Expenditure without a comparable functional breakdown (CEB series before 2018)
The CEB expenditure-by-function series starts in 2018: 43.7% of country-level expenditure 2013 to 2024 ($290.6B, all of it in 2013 to 2019) has no comparable breakdown into humanitarian, development, peace or normative functions. A series break in the published data, not a reporting failure.
CEB Expenditure by country and function
Series break · comparability
69×
Range across SDGs, resources tagged by SDG
For the highest goal (SDG 2), resources tagged by SDG (expenditure, or budget where only budget is reported) are 69× those of the lowest (SDG 14); on expenditure rows only, 62×. Three goals account for 60%; eight goals share 9%.
CEB Expenditure by SDG 2018–2024
Funding Compact
130,948
Workforce
UN system entities reported 130,948 staff in 2024, +23% since 2017; 47.7% are women. Switzerland and the United States host the most staff, reflecting headquarters in Geneva and New York.
CEB HR Statistics 2017–2024
UN80
Primary Sources
All data. All public. All reproducible.
Every figure in this observatory is derived exclusively from primary public sources. No data has been estimated, imputed, or generated. Gaps are reported as gaps.
| Source |
Coverage |
Used for |
Status |
URL |
| UN CEB Financial Statistics |
2011–2024 · 48 entities |
Revenue, expenditure, funding types, agency profiles |
Recomputed 2026-11-01 |
unsceb.org/data-download |
| CEB Revenue by Government Donor |
2013–2024 · 230 government contributors as listed by the CEB |
Concentration (direct bilateral government HHI), US share of each entity's government contributions |
Recomputed 2026-11-01 |
unsceb.org/fs-revenue-government-donor |
| UNGM Annual Statistical Report |
2019–2024 · $24.9B (2023), $25.7B (2024) |
Procurement by org, sector (UNSPSC), supplier country |
Recomputed 2026-11-01 |
ungm.org/public/asr |
| CEB HR Statistics |
2017–2024 · 20+ entities |
Staff count, gender, nationality, duty stations |
Recomputed 2026-11-01 |
unsceb.org/hr-statistics |
| World Bank Open Data |
2023 · 190+ countries |
Population and GDP for per-capita donor charts |
Recomputed 2026-11-01 |
data.worldbank.org |
| Publish What You Fund ATI |
2024 · 50 organisations |
Transparency scoring context (6 UN entities assessed); cited, not recomputed |
Cited as published |
publishwhatyoufund.org |
Editorial Discipline & Disclaimer
Methodology & Limitations
CARTA BLANCA ECONOMICS · A PERSONAL STUDY BY ORIOL CERVANTES
What this observatory does: Reports what is published in primary public sources. Measures published data against declared methodology. Documents series breaks and reporting gaps. Presents statistical patterns without editorial inference.
What this observatory does not do: Infer intent. Attribute causation. Make policy recommendations. Estimate or impute missing data. The largest-contributor share (Story chapter 2 / Observatory §07) is arithmetic applied to published 2024 CEB data, not a political position.
Known limitations: The CEB expenditure-by-function series starts in 2018; $290.6B of 2013–2019 country expenditure has no comparable functional breakdown. Government contributor labels are kept as listed by the CEB. Revenue growth is nominal (see Methodology for constant perimeter). PWYF ATI scores cover only 6 of 48 UN entities. Procurement vendor-level data is not integrated with CEB financial flows. Palestine appears under three different names in source data ($12.7B split across them). All known gaps are reported as gaps in the observatory.
Reproducibility: All figures are computable from the primary sources listed above using the aggregation methodology described in the observatory. Recomputed automatically from the CSV files on 2026-11-01; no external human review yet. No proprietary data, no estimated values, no generated content. Cleaned tables: Methodology, download the cleaned tables.
Independence: This observatory has no institutional affiliation, receives no funding, and has no relationship with any UN entity, government, or advocacy organisation. The author worked at UNDP, WHO and UNICEF in the past. It is an independent single-author study. The analysis reflects patterns observable in public data, not positions on how those patterns should be interpreted.
CEB data, reference year 2024 · downloaded 2026-10 · build 2026-11 · v1.6.2 · Publisher: Carta Blanca Labs