Classification of Functions of Government (COFOG)

Version 1.0.0 • Published May 07, 2026 00:00 UTC • by United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD), RefPack

Classification of the Functions of Government (COFOG) as defined by the United Nations Statistics Division. Used to classify the purpose of government expenditure transactions including final consumption, intermediate consumption, gross capital formation, and transfers.

Download v1.0.0 (.zip)

Classification of Functions of Government (COFOG)

Overview

Dataset Structure

Field	Type	Required
`Code`	string	Yes
`Description_EN`	string	Yes
`Description_FR`	string	Yes
`Description_ES`	string	Yes
`ExplanatoryNote`	string	No

Sample Entries

Code	Description_EN	Description_FR	Description_ES
01	General public services	Services généraux des administrations pu	Servicios públicos generales
01.1	Executive and legislative organs, financ	Fonctionnement des organes exécutifs et	Órganos ejecutivos y legislativos, asunt
01.1.1	Executive and legislative organs (CS)	Fonctionnement des organes exécutifs et	Órganos ejecutivos y legislativos (SC)
01.1.2	Financial and fiscal affairs (CS)	Affaires financières et fiscales (SC)	Asuntos financieros y fiscales (SC)
01.1.3	External affairs (CS)	Affaires étrangères (SC)	Asuntos exteriores (SC)

Usage Scenarios

Government financial reporting and budget classification
Public sector analytics and expenditure tracking
International comparisons of government spending by function
Financial management information systems (FMIS)

Data Integrity

The Code field serves as the unique identifier.
Required fields: Code, Description_EN, Description_FR, Description_ES
Additional properties are disallowed.

Metadata & Versioning

Dataset ID: cofog
Version: 1.0.0
Created (UTC): 2026-05-07T00:00:00Z
Title: Classification of Functions of Government (COFOG)
Authors: United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD), RefPack
License: Public Domain
Tags: cofog, government, finance, united nations, classification, public sector, expenditure, fiscal, cat003

Field Name	Field Type	Sample Values
Code	string	01 01.1 01.1.1
Description_EN	string	General public services Executive and legislative organs, financial and fiscal affairs, external affairs Executive and legislative organs (CS)
Description_ES	string	Servicios públicos generales Órganos ejecutivos y legislativos, asuntos financieros y fiscales, asuntos exteriores Órganos ejecutivos y legislativos (SC)
Description_FR	string	Services généraux des administrations publiques Fonctionnement des organes exécutifs et législatifs, affaires financières et fiscales, affaires étrangères Fonctionnement des organes exécutifs et législatifs (SC)
ExplanatoryNote	string	Economic aid to developing countries and countries in transition (CS) − Administration of economic cooperation with developing countries and countries in transition; − operation of economic aid missions accredited to foreign governments; operation or support of technical assistance programmes, training programmes and fellowship and scholarship schemes; − economic aid in the form of grants (in cash or in kind) or loans (regardless of interest charged). Excludes : contributions to economic development funds administered by international or regional organizations (01.2.2); military aid to foreign countries (02.3.0). Economic aid routed through international organizations (CS) − Administration of economic aid routed through international organizations; − contributions in cash or in kind to economic development funds administered by international, regional or other multinational organizations. Excludes : aid to international peacekeeping operations (02.3.0). GENERAL SERVICES This group covers services that are not connected with a specific function and which are usually undertaken by central offices at the various levels of government. It also covers those services connected with a particular function that are undertaken by such central offices. For example, the compilation of industry, environment, health or education statistics by a central statistical agency is included here.

Field Name	Type	Description	Constraints
Code *	`string`
Description_EN *	`string`
Description_ES *	`string`
Description_FR *	`string`
ExplanatoryNote	`string`

Full `data.changelog.json` Content (v1.0.0)

[
  {
    "version": "1.0.0",
    "date": "2026-05-07",
    "description": "Initial release"
  }
]

Full `data.schema.json` Content (v1.0.0)

{
  "$schema": "https://json-schema.org/draft/2020-12/schema",
  "title": "Classification of Functions of Government (COFOG) Schema",
  "type": "array",
  "items": {
    "type": "object",
    "properties": {
      "Code": {
        "type": "string",
        "description": ""
      },
      "Description_EN": {
        "type": "string",
        "description": ""
      },
      "Description_FR": {
        "type": "string",
        "description": ""
      },
      "Description_ES": {
        "type": "string",
        "description": ""
      },
      "ExplanatoryNote": {
        "type": "string",
        "description": ""
      }
    },
    "required": [
      "Code",
      "Description_EN",
      "Description_FR",
      "Description_ES"
    ],
    "additionalProperties": false
  }
}

Classification of Functions of Government (COFOG)

Classification of Functions of Government (COFOG)

Overview

Dataset Structure

Sample Entries

Usage Scenarios

Data Integrity

Metadata & Versioning

Data Preview (`data.json` - First 3 Records of v1.0.0)

Classification of Functions of Government (COFOG) Schema (v1.0.0)

Suggested Key Fields:

Changelog for Package v1.0.0

Version 1.0.0

Available Versions for cofog

Version 1.0.0 Current

Report an Issue

Reporting Guidelines

Classification of Functions of Government (COFOG)

Classification of Functions of Government (COFOG)

Overview

Dataset Structure

Sample Entries

Usage Scenarios

Data Integrity

Metadata & Versioning

Data Preview (data.json - First 3 Records of v1.0.0)

Classification of Functions of Government (COFOG) Schema (v1.0.0)

Suggested Key Fields:

Changelog for Package v1.0.0

Version 1.0.0

Available Versions for cofog

Version 1.0.0 Current

Report an Issue

Reporting Guidelines

Full data.json Content (v1.0.0)

Full data.changelog.json Content (v1.0.0)

Full data.schema.json Content (v1.0.0)

Data Preview (`data.json` - First 3 Records of v1.0.0)

Full `data.json` Content (v1.0.0)

Full `data.changelog.json` Content (v1.0.0)

Full `data.schema.json` Content (v1.0.0)