UNESCO World Heritage Sites

The World Heritage List is the best known instrument of the 1972 Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage, an international treaty administered by the UNESCO World Heritage Centre in Paris. As of the most recent sessions of the World Heritage Committee in late 2024, the list contains approximately 1,200 inscribed properties. Because the Committee meets yearly and adds, extends, or in rare cases removes properties at each session, the precise total shifts from year to year; published counts should therefore be read as approximate.

Inscribed properties are divided into three categories. Cultural sites, which include archaeological zones, historic city centers, monumental ensembles, religious complexes, industrial landscapes, and vernacular settlements, account for approximately 950 listings. Natural sites, recognized for geological formations, biodiversity, ecological processes, or exceptional scenic value, number around 230. Mixed sites, which meet both cultural and natural criteria, make up a smaller category of roughly 40 properties. A further classification, transboundary and serial properties, groups component parts across one or more States Parties under a single inscription.

The properties on the list are distributed across approximately 170 countries, although the geographic distribution is uneven. Italy, China, Germany, France, and Spain have historically held the largest national totals, while many small island developing states, nations in sub-Saharan Africa, and Pacific territories are represented by few or no inscribed sites. Addressing this imbalance is a long-standing policy priority of the World Heritage Centre and its advisory bodies.

The World Heritage system is governed by the World Heritage Committee, an intergovernmental body of 21 States Parties elected on a rotating basis from among the 194 nations that have ratified the 1972 Convention. The Committee meets in ordinary session each year to review new nominations, monitor the state of conservation of inscribed sites, and allocate resources from the World Heritage Fund. Technical evaluation is provided by three advisory bodies: the International Council on Monuments and Sites, the International Union for Conservation of Nature, and the International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property.