Classification of the Functions of Government

API Access

Access dataset files directly from scripts, code, or AI agents.

Browse dataset files

Dataset Files

Each file has a stable URL (r-link) that you can use directly in scripts, apps, or AI agents. These URLs are permanent and safe to hardcode.

/core/cofog/

├ Makefile

https://datahub.io/core/cofog/_r/-/Makefile

├ README.md

https://datahub.io/core/cofog/_r/-/README.md

├ archive/cofog_english.csv

https://datahub.io/core/cofog/_r/-/archive/cofog_english.csv

├ archive/cofog_extended_notes.csv

https://datahub.io/core/cofog/_r/-/archive/cofog_extended_notes.csv

├ archive/cofog_french.csv

https://datahub.io/core/cofog/_r/-/archive/cofog_french.csv

├ archive/cofog_spanish.csv

https://datahub.io/core/cofog/_r/-/archive/cofog_spanish.csv

├ data/cofog.csv

https://datahub.io/core/cofog/_r/-/data/cofog.csv

└ datapackage.json

https://datahub.io/core/cofog/_r/-/datapackage.json

Key Files

Start with these files — they give you everything you need to understand and access the dataset.

datapackage.json— metadata & schema

https://datahub.io/core/cofog/_r/-/datapackage.json

README.md— documentation

https://datahub.io/core/cofog/_r/-/README.md

Typical Usage

1. Fetch datapackage.json to inspect schema and resources
2. Download data resources listed in datapackage.json
3. Read README.md for full context

Data Previews

cofog

Loading data...

Schema

name	type
Code	string
DescriptionEN	string
DescriptionFR	string
DescriptionES	string
ExplanatoryNote	string

Data Files

File	Description	Size	Last modified	Download
cofog		104 kB	28 days ago	cofog

Files	Size	Format	Created	Updated	License	Source
1	104 kB			12 months ago	Open Data Commons Public Domain Dedication and License v1.0	United Nations

Classification of the Functions of Government (COFOG) is a classification defined by the United Nations Statistics Division. Its purpose is to "classify the purpose of transactions such as outlays on final consumption expenditure, intermediate consumption, gross capital formation and capital and current transfers, by general government" (from home page).

These functions are designed to be general enough to apply to the government of different countries. The accounts of each country in the United Nations are presented under these categories. The value of this is that the accounts of different countries can be compared.

Preparation

To prepare and process the COFOG data, follow these steps:

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/datasets/cofog.git
cd cofog

# Run make to process everything
make all

This will:

Install required dependencies
Download and process explanatory notes
Extract descriptions in multiple languages
Merge all data into a single CSV file

The final merged dataset will be available at data/cofog.csv.

Data

Data was sourced from the UN site (raw access database from the UN) and extracted using the scripts found in the scripts directory of the source data package. In addition to the UN site, versions of COFOG can also be found on Eurostat with one advantage of the Eurostat data being the availability of additional languages (e.g. German).

License

No license specified but factual data and extraction and normalization of the csv file has been done by the Maintainer who places the material in the Public Domain under the PDDL.