The Brussels-based Union of International Associations has just released its International Meeting Statistics report for the year 2009. UIA has conducted research, monitoring, and information-gathering on international organizations, international associations, and their global challenges since 1907.

The total number of meetings in the 2009 database increased to 342,500 from 328,949 in 2008. More than half of meetings (54 percent) took place in Europe and more than one fifth (23 percent) were held in Asia. But the country pulling the greatest single share of meetings was the United States, with 9.4 percent of the total. Rounding out the top three countries are: Singapore (6 percent) and France (5.5 percent).

As a city-state, Singapore also took the top spot on the city rankings, again with 6 percent of the total. In the second and third spots are Brussels (3.4 percent) and Paris (2.8 percent).

The annual meeting statistics are based on information 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 that appear in the UIA’s Yearbook of International Organizations—that is, 63,614 civil society organizations in 300 countries and territories—and in the UIA’s International Congress Calendar; that is, the meetings of their principal organs, congresses, conventions, symposia, regional sessions grouping several countries, as well as national meetings with international participation. (Not included are purely national meetings as well as those of an exclusively religious, didactic, political, commercial, or sporting nature, and corporate and incentive meetings.)

Top International Meeting Countries in 2009
1. USA: 1085 meetings
2. Singapore: 689 meetings
3. France: 632 meetings
4. Germany: 555 meetings
5. Japan: 538 meetings
6. Belgium: 470 meetings
7. Netherlands: 458 meetings
8. Austria: 421 meetings
9. Italy: 391 meetings
10. Spain: 365 meetings

Top International Meeting Cities in 2009
1. Singapore: 689 meetings
2. Brussels: 395 meetings
3. Paris: 316 meetings
4. Vienna: 311 meetings
5. Geneva: 183 meetings
6. Berlin: 171 meetings
7. Prague: 170 meetings
8. Stockholm: 159 meetings
9. Seoul: 151 meetings
10. Barcelona: 148 meetings