Central Bureau of Statistics (Arab Union)

The Central Bureau of Statistics (Arabic: المكتب المركزي للاحصاء al-maktab al-markizī lil-iḥṣā’) is the national statistical agency of the Arab Union. It is a state institution that records and publishes statistics across several unique disciplines, providing an essential service to health care providers, urban planners, broadcasters, transportation systems, and many additional institutions and organisations across the government, nonprofit, public, private and academic sectors. The Central Bureau of Statistics is an independent agency of the government of the Arab Union which is directly answerable to the Presidential Executive Council, acting in accordance with Article II, section 34, parts iii–xix of the constitution of the Arab Union.

The Central Bureau of Statistics has its headquarters in Kiryat Shams, Nasser City, and maintains major offices in Damascus, Baghdad, Jerusalem, Cairo, Riyadh and Algiers, as well as field offices in most other major Arab cities including all capitals. The agency also operates an office attached to the Ministry of Defence, which compiles defence-related statistics and projections from a wide range of data recorded by military units, commands, logistics and support infrastructure. The Central Bureau of Statistics also worked closely with the National Health Authority during the COVID-19 pandemic, ensuring timely dissemination and maximum availability of relevant preliminary data and interpretations thereof (including realtime number of potential and confirmed cases), creating new areas of collaboration, and bolstering service quality, impact and efficiency via a multilateral, holistic approach to statistics and their application.