The Committee for the Coordination of Statistical Activities (CCSA), which consists of 36 UN agencies and international organizations, released a report entitled "How COVID-19 is changing the world: a statistical perspective". The report shows highlights of COVID-19's economic and social impacts and regional trends that were unexpected a few months ago.

Here are some excerpts from the report.

The COVID-19 pandemic has turned the world upside down affecting every aspect of people's way of life including how they live, how they work and communicate, and how they move. Despite being locked down, governments, epidemiologists, school principals, entrepreneurs and families around the world are already planning the next steps for recovery.

The most shocking economic index is a 9% annual decline in global production and manufacturing output, and a 27% decline in world trade in the second quarter of 2020. For example, the global commodity prices recorded the largest fall at minus 20.4% for the February-March period of 2020. On the social side, total working hours fell 10.5%, 305 million full-time jobs were lost, 1.6 billion students have been affected by school closures, and an additional 40-60 people will fall into extreme poverty.

The impact of COVID-19 on various fronts including economic impacts (banking sector, aviation industry, labor situation, trade and commodity market, industrial production, tourism etc.), social impacts (risk for agricultural supply and demand, migration, ICTs, human rights, poverty, education, gender etc.), regional impacts (EU, the Gulf, Africa) and statistical impacts were also presented in detail.

The statistics presented in this report are just the tip of the iceberg, and readers are encouraged to visit the websites of international organizations. 

References

CCSA. How COVID-19 is changing the world: a statistical perspective. 

UN. Data tells the story on how COVID-19 is changing the world 15 May 2020, New York 

Contributor: IIYAMA Miyuki