STATISTICS

30th Anniversary:
The Convention concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage was adopted by UNESCO General Assembly in Paris, France on 16 November 1972.

Number of States Parties:
175 States Parties (countries) have signed the Convention as of October 2002.

World Heritage Sites:
· In 1978, the World Heritage Committee, the main body in charge of implementing the Convention, developed selection criteria for the inscription of "cultural, natural and mixed" properties on the World Heritage List.
· The 730 properties which the World Heritage Committee has inscribed on the World Heritage List to date include 563 cultural, 144 natural and 23 mixed properties in 125 States Parties.
· The Galápagos Islands of Ecuador became the first of 12 sites to be inscribed in 1978 meeting all four criteria for a natural site.
· Also in 1978 the Wieliczka Salt Mine in Poland became the first industrial heritage site to be included on the List. (now among 33 sites around the world that have been inscribed on the World Heritage List in recognition of our common industrial heritage)
· In 1993 New Zealand's Tongariro National Park was inscribed as a Cultural Landscape, the designation for areas that reflect the reciprocal harmony and influence reigning between people and the natural world. Its mountains have cultural and religious significance for the Maori people and symbolize their spiritual links with the environment. Today, there are 28 cultural landscapes inscribed on the List.

Total number of sites inscribed over the past four years:
48 in 1999
61 in 2000
31 in 2001
9 in 2002

Total number of sites by region (as of 2002)
57 in Africa
54 in Arab States
140 in Asia & the Pacific
375 in Europe & North America
104 in Latin America

Total number of sites on the World Heritage List by decade
84 in 1980
335 in 1990
730 in 2002
List of World Heritage in Danger.
· There are currently 33 sites inscribed on the List of World Heritage in Danger (mostly in Africa).
· First designation of a site in Danger in 1979-- after a major earthquake struck the city of Kotor in Yugoslavia.
· First site to be removed from the List of World Heritage in Danger, in 1988, was Senegal's Djoudj National Bird Sanctuary, a fragile wetlands area threatened by invasive plants, after sluices were built to allow better regulation of water.

World Heritage Fund
· In 1978, the Committee established a system for providing international assistance from the World Heritage Fund, which is made up from contributions from States Parties and donors.
· Today the Fund receives three to four million dollars a year in dues

Web site
· The World Heritage Centre Web site http://whc.unesco.org is the most successful outreach tool of the World Heritage Centre.
· It received 32035 "pagewiews" per day in September 2002 for a total of 961066 for the month, which is the highest number in this web site's history.