Introduction
The Classification of Functions of Government (COFOG) is a comprehensiveframework that provides a detailed classification of the functions, orsocioeconomic objectives, that governments aim to achieve throughvarious kinds of expenditure. It is one of a family of fourclassifications of expenditure according to purpose, alongsideClassifications of Individual Consumption According to Purpose (COICOP),the Classification of the Purpose of Non-profit Institutions ServingHouseholds (COPNI), and the Classification of the Outlays of ProducersAccording to Purpose (COPP). COFOG was first published in 1980 andrevised in 1999. COFOG1999 was approved by the United Nations Statistical commission at thethirtieth session of the Commission in March 1999.
Despite the landscape of government policy and socio-economic objectivesevolving over this period, both nationally and in response to globalchallenges there has been no revision of the COFOG categorization since.The United Nations Statistical Commission (UNSC) at its fifty-thirdsession in 2022 recommended the revision of the Classification of theFunctions of Government (COFOG) and an assessment of whether changes arerequired in the other classifications of expenditure according topurpose. (Decision 53/125(i) of E/CN.3/2022/41)
The revision of COFOG will be carried out under the auspices of theUnited Nations Committee of Experts on International StatisticalClassifications (UNCEISC). The Committee has established a task team(TT-COFOG) to revise COFOG following the approval of its terms ofreference by the Statistical Commission at its fifty-fifth session. The task teamcomprises experts on statistical classifications and subject matterexperts on government finance statistics, national accounts,environmental accounts and other users or producers of theClassification. The primary objectives of the TT-COFOG are to develop arevised version of the COFOG, including the structure, explanatory notesand correspondences between the revised COFOG and the 1999 version ofCOFOG. In addition, the task team will provide an assessment on whetherchanges are required in other classifications according to purpose inthe context of the COFOG revision and make a recommendation to UNCEISC.It is anticipated that the update will be completed by 2027.
What is COFOG?
COFOG is a classification of transactions designed to apply to generalgovernment and its subsectors. In the current version of the COFOGclassification, there are ten divisions in the classification asfollows:
01 General public services
02 Defence
03 Public order and safety
04 Economic affairs
05 Environmental protection
06 Housing and community amenities
07 Health
08 Recreation, culture and religion
09 Education
10 Social protection
These divisions are broken down into more details in groups, which againare broken down into classes. At the most detailed level, classes,whether the expenditure are being related to collective services orindividual services are indicated.
Initial List of Revision Issue Category
Task Team members, in consultation with their colleagues,submitted proposed issues for consideration in the revision of COFOG. These proposals have been organized into 21 initial revision issuecategories, under 2 main groupings:
A. Current COFOG Divisions, Cross-cutting issues, and Other Thematic Issues
A01. General public services
A02. Defence
A03. Public order and safety
A04. Economic affairs
A05. Environmental protection
(includes alignment with CEP, SEEA and otherenvironmental classifications/frameworks)
A06. Housing and community amenities
A07. Health (includes alignment with SHA)
A09. Education (includes alignment with ISCED)
A10. Social protection
A11. Cross-cutting issues
A12. R&D (includes alignment with NABS)
A13. Digitalization
A14. Gender
A15. Indigenous peoples
B. Structural, Alignment and Other Issues
B1. COFOG structure/classification principles
B2. Primary/secondary purpose
B3. Additional uses of COFOG
B4. Compilation issues
B5. Individual/collective expenditure
B6. Internal consistency with other classifications of expenditureaccording to purpose:
COICOP/COPP/COPNI
B7. Alignment with other classifications/frameworks
Global Consultation
A Global Consultation on the Initial List of Issues for the Update ofCOFOG was conducted from November 2024 - January 2025 with countries,international/regional organizations and broader user communities tocollect feedback on the initial list of issues which were identified bythe TT-COFOG. The feedback from the global consultation will contributeto the finalization of the list of issues.
- • The final report of the global consultation is available here
- • The complete responses to open-ended questions are available here
- • Questionnaire
- • Copy of Annex 1: Summary of proposed issues
Revision Process
The following five Working Groups will be established under the TaskTeam to advance the initial revision issues as outlined above:
A. Economic and public affairs (A01-A04)
B. Environment (A05, B7)
C. Social and demographic (A06-A10)
D. Cross-cutting issues (A11-A15)
E. Classification principles and cross-classification issues (B1-B6)
Working Groups will be tasked with discussing the related revisionissues, and developing proposals/recommendations for consideration anddecisions by the wider Task Team.
The revision process of COFOG will be undertaken in coordination withthe update process of other macroeconomic standards, including theupdate of the Government Financial Statistics Manual (GFSM) and theSystem of Environmental-Economic Accounting (SEEA) Central Framework.
- • Update of the Government Finance Statistics Manual 2014 (GFSM 2014) https://www.imf.org/en/Data/Statistics/government-finance-statistics-manual/
- • Update of the SEEA Central Framework https://seea.un.org/content/update-seea-central-framework
