UIA Meetings Statistics Released: USA and Singapore Lead the Way

For the past six decades, the Union of International Associations (UIA) has undertaken statistical studies on the preceding years’ international meetings. The statistics are based on information systematically collected by the UIA Congress Department and selected according to strict criteria maintained over the years, thus enabling meaningful comparison from year to year.

Meetings taken into consideration include those organized and/or sponsored by the international organizations which appear in the Yearbook of International Organizations and in the International Congress Calendar, i.e. the sittings of their principal organs, congresses, conventions, symposia, regional sessions grouping several countries, as well as some national meetings with international participation organized by national branches of international associations.

Regarding countries, the rankings show little change, with all the main players in the industry still making the top ten. Belgium is now 2nd right after the USA, while Singapore lost its first position. In terms of cities, the top 3 hasn't changed since last year: Singapore, Brussels and Vienna are still on top of their game. Paris moved up 3 places, while Bangkok and Geneva appear in the top ten for the first time.

Top international meeting countries in 2014

Top international meeting cities in 2014

More prominence is also given to presenting data which, due to the passage of time, can be considered to have stabilized. The editors emphasize that the number of meetings in the database for the current reporting year will, on average, increase by 11 percent over the next year, and by nearly 35 percent over the following five years.

(picture: Singapore)