This report had its origin in a Committee on National Statistics workshop in November 1993, one of a series on improving economic statistics, jointly sponsored by the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) and the Bureau of the Census of the U.S. Department of Commerce. The focus of the workshop was on revising the presentation of the government sector in the U.S. economic accounts to bring it more into line with the international System of National Accounts (SNA) and current data collection capability, to enhance information about the public sector, and to make the U.S. accounts more comparable to those of other countries.

This is an update of OECD 2006 "Understanding National Accounts". It contains new data, new chapters and is adapted to the new systems of national accounts, SNA 2008 and ESA 2010.

This report had its origin in a Committee on National Statistics workshop in November 1993, one of a series on improving economic statistics, jointly sponsored by the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) and the Bureau of the Census of the U.S. Department of Commerce. The focus of the workshop was on revising the presentation of the government sector in the U.S. economic accounts to bring it more into line with the international System of National Accounts (SNA) and current data collection capability, to enhance information about the public sector, and to make the U.S. accounts more comparable to those of other countries.