Data

Per capita CO₂ emissions from international commercial passenger flights, tourism-adjusted

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About this data

Per capita CO₂ emissions from international commercial passenger flights, tourism-adjusted
International aviation emissions are allocated to the country of departure, then .
Source
OECD (2024); UNWTO (2024); Population based on various sources (2024) – with major processing by Our World in Data
Last updated
August 21, 2024
Next expected update
August 2025
Date range
2013–2022
Unit
kilograms

Sources and processing

This data is based on the following sources

This database provides annual, quarterly and monthly estimates for carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from commercial passenger, freight and general aviation flights. The emissions are estimated for 186 countries by the OECD, based on a consistent methodology across countries. From 2019, the estimates are compiled using Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) flight data from the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO).

The database provides measures of CO2 emissions on a territory basis, which is used for reporting in the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) inventories; and also on a residence basis, which is used to estimate the emissions of air transport (H51 in the International Standard Industrial Classification of All Economic Activities, or ISIC) in the Air Emission Accounts (AEAs).

Seven components of these CO2 emissions measures can be selected from the ‘Emissions ’ filter. In the tables, these are also shown with the letters A, B, C, D, E, F and G. The UNFCCC inventories and AEA air transport (ISIC H51) measures of CO2 emissions are calculated as: Inventories: domestic aviation = A + C Inventories: international aviation (memo item) = D + G Air emissions accounts: air transport (ISIC H51) = A + B + D + E + F Three categories of flight are shown on the database: total flights, passenger flights, and freight flights. General aviation (non-freight flights with fewer than 19 passengers such as agricultural planes and private jets) is included with passenger flights.

The estimation methodology is described in the OECD Working Paper CO2 Emissions from Air Transport - A Near-Real-Time Global Database for Policy Analysis. and in the note Air transport CO2 emissions methodology update.

Retrieved on
July 25, 2024
Retrieved from
https://data-explorer.oecd.org/vis?df[ds]=DisseminateFinalDMZ&df[id]=DSD_AIR_TRANSPORT%40DF_AIR_TRANSPORT&df[ag]=OECD.SDD.NAD.SEEA&dq=W%2BZWE%2BZMB%2BYEM%2BVNM%2BVEN%2BVUT%2BUZB%2BURY%2BARE%2BUKR%2BUGA%2BTUV%2BTKM%2BTUN%2BTTO%2BTON%2BTGO%2BTLS%2BTHA%2BTZA%2BTJK%2BSYR%2BTWN%2BSUR%2BSDN%2BLKA%2BSSD%2BZAF%2BSOM%2BSLB%2BSXM%2BSLE%2BSGP%2BSYC%2BSRB%2BSEN%2BSAU%2BSTP%2BSMR%2BWSM%2BVCT%2BLCA%2BKNA%2BRWA%2BRUS%2BROU%2BQAT%2BPHL%2BPER%2BPRY%2BPNG%2BPAN%2BPLW%2BPAK%2BOMN%2BMKD%2BNGA%2BNIU%2BNIC%2BNER%2BNRU%2BNPL%2BNAM%2BMMR%2BMOZ%2BMAR%2BMNE%2BMNG%2BMCO%2BMDA%2BFSM%2BMUS%2BMRT%2BMHL%2BMLT%2BMLI%2BMDV%2BMYS%2BMWI%2BMDG%2BMAC%2BLBY%2BLBR%2BLSO%2BLBN%2BLAO%2BKWT%2BKGZ%2BXKV%2BKIR%2BKEN%2BKAZ%2BJOR%2BJEY%2BJAM%2BIRQ%2BIDN%2BIRN%2BIND%2BHKG%2BHND%2BHTI%2BGUY%2BGNB%2BGIN%2BGTM%2BGRD%2BGHA%2BGEO%2BGMB%2BGAB%2BFJI%2BETH%2BSWZ%2BERI%2BGNQ%2BSLV%2BEGY%2BECU%2BDOM%2BDMA%2BCOD%2BDJI%2BPRK%2BCYP%2BCUB%2BHRV%2BCIV%2BCOK%2BCOG%2BCCK%2BCOM%2BCXR%2BCHN%2BTCD%2BCAF%2BCMR%2BKHM%2BCPV%2BBDI%2BBFA%2BBGR%2BBRN%2BBRA%2BBWA%2BBIH%2BBOL%2BBTN%2BBEN%2BBLZ%2BBLR%2BBRB%2BBGD%2BBHR%2BBHS%2BAZE%2BARM%2BARG%2BATG%2BAGO%2BDZA%2BALB%2BAFG%2BWXOECD%2BOECD%2BUSA%2BGBR%2BTUR%2BCHE%2BSWE%2BESP%2BSVN%2BSVK%2BPRT%2BPOL%2BNOR%2BNZL%2BNLD%2BMEX%2BLUX%2BLTU%2BLVA%2BKOR%2BJPN%2BITA%2BISR%2BIRL%2BISL%2BGRC%2BHUN%2BDEU%2BFIN%2BEST%2BDNK%2BCZE%2BCRI%2BCOL%2BCHL%2BBEL%2BCAN%2BAUT%2BAUS%2BFRA.M.....P.RES_TOTAL%2BTER_INT%2BTER_DOM%2BRES_ABROAD%2BNRES_TERR%2BNRES_INT_FROM%2BRES_INT_OUT%2BRES_INT_TO%2BRES_INT_FROM%2BNRES_DOM_IN%2BRES_DOM_OUT%2BRES_DOM_IN.&pd=2013-01%2C2024-06&to[TIME_PERIOD]=false&ly[cl]=TIME_PERIOD&ly[rw]=EMISSIONS_SOURCE%2CCOMBINED_UNIT_MEASURE%2CREF_AREA&vw=ov
Citation
This is the citation of the original data obtained from the source, prior to any processing or adaptation by Our World in Data. To cite data downloaded from this page, please use the suggested citation given in Reuse This Work below.
OECD (2024). OECD Data Explorer. Air transport CO2 emissions (experimental).

The United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) collects data from countries through annual questionnaires that follow the International Recommendations for Tourism Statistics (IRTS 2008) standard, a framework approved by the United Nations. The data covers various aspects of tourism, such as inbound tourism (including arrivals by region, main purpose, and mode of transport, as well as accommodation and tourism expenditure in the country), domestic Tourism (including trips and accommodation), outbound tourism (including departures and tourism expenditure in other countries), tourism industries (such as accommodation in hotels and similar establishments), and employment (including the number of employees in tourism industries).

Retrieved on
August 17, 2024
Citation
This is the citation of the original data obtained from the source, prior to any processing or adaptation by Our World in Data. To cite data downloaded from this page, please use the suggested citation given in Reuse This Work below.
World Tourism Organization (2024), 145 Key Tourism Statistics, UNWTO, Madrid:
https://www.unwto.org/tourism-statistics/key-tourism-statistics [17-08-2024].

Our World in Data builds and maintains a long-run dataset on population by country, region, and for the world, based on various sources.

You can find more information on these sources and how our time series is constructed on this page: https://ourworldindata.org/population-sources

Retrieved on
July 11, 2024
Citation
This is the citation of the original data obtained from the source, prior to any processing or adaptation by Our World in Data. To cite data downloaded from this page, please use the suggested citation given in Reuse This Work below.
The long-run data on population is based on various sources, described on this page: https://ourworldindata.org/population-sources

How we process data at Our World in Data

All data and visualizations on Our World in Data rely on data sourced from one or several original data providers. Preparing this original data involves several processing steps. Depending on the data, this can include standardizing country names and world region definitions, converting units, calculating derived indicators such as per capita measures, as well as adding or adapting metadata such as the name or the description given to an indicator.

At the link below you can find a detailed description of the structure of our data pipeline, including links to all the code used to prepare data across Our World in Data.

Read about our data pipeline
Notes on our processing step for this indicator
  • CO₂ emission footprints do not necessarily reflect the amount of travel by locals in a given location. This is especially true if a country has high tourist volumes - much of the departures will result from travellers rather than local residents.

  • We have therefore also calculated 'adjusted' aviation footprints by multiplying international CO₂ emissions by an adjustment factor.

  • This adjustment factor is taken as the ratio between outbound and inbound tourist trips.

  • A high ratio of outbound-to-inbound tourist trips indicates that a country receives less visitors than its residents travel abroad. This results in a relatively lower burden of emissions from international flights being allocated to the country whose residents don't travel internationally as frequently.

Reuse this work

  • All data produced by third-party providers and made available by Our World in Data are subject to the license terms from the original providers. Our work would not be possible without the data providers we rely on, so we ask you to always cite them appropriately (see below). This is crucial to allow data providers to continue doing their work, enhancing, maintaining and updating valuable data.
  • All data, visualizations, and code produced by Our World in Data are completely open access under the Creative Commons BY license. You have the permission to use, distribute, and reproduce these in any medium, provided the source and authors are credited.

Citations

How to cite this page

To cite this page overall, including any descriptions, FAQs or explanations of the data authored by Our World in Data, please use the following citation:

“Data Page: Per capita CO₂ emissions from international commercial passenger flights, tourism-adjusted”, part of the following publication: Bastian Herre and Veronika Samborska (2023) - “Tourism”. Data adapted from OECD, UNWTO, Various sources. Retrieved from https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/per-capita-co-emissions-from-international-flights-tourism-adjusted [online resource]
How to cite this data

In-line citationIf you have limited space (e.g. in data visualizations), you can use this abbreviated in-line citation:

OECD (2024); UNWTO (2024); Population based on various sources (2024) – with major processing by Our World in Data

Full citation

OECD (2024); UNWTO (2024); Population based on various sources (2024) – with major processing by Our World in Data. “Per capita CO₂ emissions from international commercial passenger flights, tourism-adjusted” [dataset]. OECD, “Air transport CO2 emissions (experimental)”; UNWTO, “145 key tourism statistics”; Various sources, “Population” [original data]. Retrieved October 30, 2024 from https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/per-capita-co-emissions-from-international-flights-tourism-adjusted