FAOSTAT consists of an integrated core database and satellite databases feeding and supporting it. Therefore it's appropriate to talk about the "FAOSTAT family" which is organised in modules around a core database that brings together and integrates the data contained in thematic databases. These cover areas such as agricultural production, consumption, trade, prices and resources.

The current core of FAOSTAT contains a full matrix of integrated and compatible statistics coverage of 200 countries, 16 years, and more than 200 primary products and input items related to production, trade, resources, consumption and prices. Naturally, the construction of an integrated database requires filtering, aggregating and transforming the detailed source databases to a common denominator.

The  FAOSTAT comes with complete global coverage, cross-domain integration, a fully-refined user-interface and increased data transparency. It will serve the needs of  our users and allow them more time for analysis; still it may not meet all the specific needs of our diverse user groups. It is hoped to meet the demand for detailed and specific requirements by linking users to the detailed  databases in the family which are consistent with the core database. Furthermore, this site provides links to other related databases that are not members of the family, both in FAO and outside. Therefore, FAOSTAT aims not only to host the largest database on food and agriculture, but also to be a gateway to complementary databases.