Exploration tools

Dealing with large amounts of data can sometimes be overwhelming. One way to make sense of data, and help reveal patterns that cannot otherwise be easily understood, is to visualise the data. Some data visualisations are showcased here to help make our statistics more understandable at-a-glance.

Biodiversity-based products

The Trade and Biodiversity (TraBio) database provides access for all to consistent and complete data on imports and exports of biodiversity-based products and other relevant indicators. It thus aims to contribute to establish a harmonized and internationally accepted statistical framework for biodiversity-related trade.

Trade in processed food

The aim here is to illustrate and understand food trade flows according to different levels of processing, i.e. according to types of processing and ingredients. This experimental classification involves a mixture of processing stages, avoiding a consistent trend towards higher levels of processing as one moves up the categories.

Productive Capacities Index

UNCTAD’s Productive Capacities Index is a dynamic and practical tool to support developing countries in understanding the status of their productive capacity and how this can be improved. The PCI covers 193 economies. The set of productive capacities and their specific combinations are mapped across 46 indicators.

Revealed Comparative Advantage

Revealed comparative advantage (RCA) is based on Ricardian trade theory, which posits that patterns of trade among countries are governed by their relative differences in productivity. Although such productivity differences are difficult to observe, an RCA metric can be readily calculated using trade data to "reveal" such differences.

Global transport costs for international trade

This visualization aims to complement the underlying quantitative data by offering alternative access to the data and providing high-level insights into how transport costs may differ as a function of mode of transport, distance, economies of scale, and other factors. Transport costs are broken down by product (Harmonized System at six-digit level) and by mode of transport.