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Major Sources for Country Data and
Statistics
Note: Many resources
linked on other pages of this site provide comparative
country data and statistics in diverse topical areas
such as human rights, election results, press freedom,
population, and international trade. Some of those are
listed here, for major interest areas, but please also
search in a page of this site that includes the topic
of your interest.
Economic
and Social Data Service-- UK academic "data service
providing [free] access and support for an extensive range
of key economic and social data, both quantitative and
qualitative, spanning many disciplines and themes." Note
especially ESDS International, with
"multi-nation aggregate databanks, such as World Bank, and
survey data including Eurobarometers."
International Statistics-- From the
Library of Statistics Finland, "Key international
statistics and data sources have been gathered into this
portal. The selection includes free data sources of the
most important and reliable international organisations
and communities."
Internet Crossroads in Social Science
Data-- From the Data and Program Library Service,
University of Wisconsin-Madison, searchable site that
"contains over 950 annotated links to data-related
resources on the Internet."
LIS Cross-National Data Center--
"Home to the Luxembourg Income Study Database and the
Luxembourg Wealth Study Database. These databases contain
harmonised microdata from high- and middle-income
countries around the world."
Free for use, including the Working Papers series, but
requires registration.
OFFSTATS: Official Statistics on the Web--
Annotated links to sites offering "free and easily
accessible social, economic and general data from official
sources,"current data and time series, by country, IGO,
topic, or subject.
Organization for Economic Development
and Cooperation-- The
international organization of the industrialized,
market-economy countries, to exchange information and
harmonize policy to maximize economic growth within member
countries and assist non-member countries to develop more
rapidly. OECD statistics and many data sets
are posted online. The Publishing
section is a good place to start searching for
publications. OECD resources focusing on a particular
country (OECD member or not) can be found in the Countries
section. The very useful yearly
OECD
Factbook is "an essential tool providing a global
overview of world economic, social and environmental
trends." An interactive eXplorer feature allows Factbook
time-series data manipulation on a world map and a scatter
plot screen.
Statistical Agencies in the UN/ECE
Region-- Links to national and international
statistics agencies relevant to the U.N. Economic
Commission for Europe's 55 member countries in Europe and
North America.
Statistical
Sites
on
the
World
Wide
Web-- From the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics,
listing U.S. and international online sources of all kinds
of reliable statistics.
Statistics-- From RBA Information Services, in the UK, a very extensive compilation of links to statistics sources worldwide, for many countries and topical areas.
United
Nations Statistics Division-- From the Department of
Economic and Social Affairs of the United Nations, a vast
array of world, regional, and national statistics from
many national and international sources.
World Bank Data-- The World Bank Group's extensive data resources are organized and available through this site. Note the World Bank Data Catalog, "a listing of available World Bank datasets, including databases, pre-formatted tables, reports, and other resources," such as social, governance, financial, economic, and climate statistics, data, and reports. The Countries and Economies page presents time-series tables of key indicators by country. The DataBank is an "analysis and visualisation tool that contains collections of time series data on a variety of topics." Also see the data and analysis available at the Countries and Regions page.
Sources for General Country Information
• Administration and Cost of Elections (ACE) Project-- Really fine "online knowledge repository that provides comprehensive information and customized advice on electoral processes," including comparative country election data and analysis and a huge Encyclopaedia of Elections.
• Amnesty
International-- Country studies are available from
this well-known organization promoting human rights
worldwide.
• aneki.com-- Provides statistical
facts plus continental and world rankings for countries,
in various categories and from standard sources.
• Australia's Department of Foreign
Affairs and Trade offers Country, Economy, and Regional
Information and Country
and
Economy Fact Sheets, the latter in PDF format.
• Central Intelligence Agency of the United States publishes a searchable
World Factbook reference annual, with data, flags,
and maps-- one of the most widely respected online sources
of country and world information, with a country
comparison and ranking feature.
• Consular Affairs Bureau-- A site for
travelers, from the Foreign Affairs and International
Trade Office of the Canadian government, with abundant and
current reports on country characteristics, maps,
situations, issues, and risks worldwide, by country.
• Country Data-- Very useful and
well-organized selection over a wide range of variables,
from the Everything International academic
site for international business, by Professor Lloyd Russow.
• Country Profiles-- The BBC News
World Edition has country profiles that "provide an
instant guide to history, politics and economic background
of countries. They also include audio and video clips from
the BBC archives."
• Country and Region Profiles-- From
the world-class Electronic Development and Environment
Information System (Eldis), a wide variety of detailed
country-specific information and analysis.
• Country Reports on Human Rights
Practices-- Texts of yearly reports by the U.S.
Department of State, and related documents. Reports from 1993 to 1999 are
available on an archive site.
• Country Statistics-- From UNICEF,
country data on measures of well-being, particularly for
children.
• Electoral Geography-- Posts maps and
analysis about spatial regularities and patterns of
election results around the world, or "mapped politics...
a socio-political analysis of voting trends in the world’s
192 countries."
• Embassy
World-- Directory of the world's embassies and
consulates in a searchable database.
• Flags of the World-- The Internet's largest and most complete website devoted to the study of flags-- "more than 51,000 pages about flags and... more than 96,000 images of flags of countries, organizations, states, territories, districts and cities, both past and present."
• Freedom
House-- Many online
studies ranking countries on measures of freedom,
informative backgrounders, and other publications are
offered by this nonprofit, nonpartisan U.S. organization
dedicated to promoting democracy around the world. Note
especially their extensive yearly online report Freedom
in the World.
• Gender
Equality Data and Statistics-- From the World Bank,
an electronic database of gender equality statistics and
indicators, by country and category.
• GeoHive-- "Site with geopolitical
data, statistics on the human population, Earth and more.
The main kind of data you can find here is population
statistics of regions, countries, provinces and cities.
Next to that there are some statistics on economic factors
like wealth, infrastructure; statistics on natural
phenomena..."
• Human Development Report Office,
United Nations Development Programme-- The annual Human
Development Report is an excellent comprehensive
guide to global human development, with analyses of major
issues, updated Human Development Indicators that compare
the relative levels of human development of over 175
countries, and an agenda to help transform development
priorities. Much of the report is available online, and
links to regional and national HDI reports.
• Human Rights Watch-- Dedicated to
protecting the human rights of people around the world, by
investigating and exposing human rights violations and
holding abusers accountable. Many country reports online,
including their yearly World Report.
• Index
of Economic Freedom-- From the Heritage Foundation
and the Wall Street Journal, "a [searchable]
practical reference guide to the world's economies. It
includes country-by-country analyses and the most
up-to-date data available on foreign investment codes,
taxes, tariffs, banking regulations, monetary policy,
black markets, and more."
• Infoplease (World section)-- An
almanac approach to world and country facts, statistics,
and events.
• International Foundation for Election
Systems-- Private,
nonprofit U.S. organization supporting electoral and other
democratic institutions in emerging, evolving, and
experienced democracies--"one of the world's premier
democracy and governance assistance organizations."
Insightful electoral information and analysis. See the Election
Guide for election news and analysis worldwide.
• International Institute for Democracy
and Electoral Assistance--
Aims to promote and advance sustainable democracy, improve
and consolidate electoral processes world-wide, and
provide a forum for discussions and action among
individuals and organizations involved in democracy
promotion. This site from Sweden offers news, analyses,
and databases. Note especially Democracy
and Gender and Voter Turnout.
• International Monetary Fund-- The
IMF oversees a wide range of international economic and
financial issues. Numerous publications on economic and
financial issues, including country information and World Economic Outlook Reports,
are available and searchable online. The Financial
Soundness Indicators database is "aimed at
supporting macroprudential analysis—the surveillance and
assessment of the strengths and vulnerabilities of
[national] financial systems."
• Inter-Parliamentary
Union-- Information on the IPU (the world
organization of parliaments of sovereign states), the
functioning of parliamentary democracy around the world,
women in parliaments, and links to parliamentary web
sites. The PARLINE Database on National Parliaments
gives information about all the functioning national
legislative bodies in the world.
• Live Currency Converter-- "Converts
any amount from one currency to another with more than 150
foreign currenies available. Exchange rates are updated
every hour."
• Nation
Master-- Great site for comparative statistics. "A
massive central data source and a handy way to graphically
compare nations. NationMaster is a vast compilation of
data from such sources as the CIA World Factbook, UN, and
OECD. Using the form above, you can generate maps and
graphs on all kinds of statistics with ease."
• Nations
Online-- Thorough compendium of wide-ranging
information and links on the world's countries, "a portal
of gateways to the countries, cultures and nations in the
world, a reference directory and a destination guide."
• Pew Global Attitudes Project-- From
the Pew
Research Center, an excellent "series of worldwide
public opinion surveys that encompasses a broad array of
subjects ranging from people's assessments of their own
lives to their views about the current state of the world
and important issues of the day." Note the Publications
on Global Attitudes/Foreign Affairs page and the Key Indicators Database, which
"allows users to explore public opinion trends in 55
countries on topics ranging from attitudes toward the U.S.
to people's assessments of their own lives to views about
globalization, democratization, extremism and other
important issues."
• Population Reference Bureau-- Fine
source for authoritative data and analysis on world,
regional, and national population and demographics trends.
Features a large downloadable graphics bank of PowerPoint
presentation graphics. Note their Annual Report
and their annual World Population Data Sheet for
"up-to-date demographic, health, and environment data for
all the countries and major regions of the world." Search
for data and analysis by topic, region, or country. The
handy DataFinder has data on "133
population, health, and environment variables for more
than 220 countries, 28 world regions and sub-regions, and
the world as a whole." The quarterly Population
Bulletins on selected topics are very useful.
• Superpages--
Helps you to search the "yellow and white pages
[telephone] directories from around the world."
• Timeanddate.com-- Know the current
time and date at locations around the world. The Personal
World Clock feature allows you to keep track of time in
locations of your own interest.
• TimeTicker-- Shows time zones around
the world, and current time and date by country.
• Transparency
International-- "The global civil society
organisation leading the fight against corruption... by
building momentum for the anti-corruption movement,
raising awareness and diminishing apathy and tolerance of
corruption, as well as devising and implementing practical
actions to address it." TI's many online corruption
surveys, indices, working papers, and reports analyze and
rank countries "in terms of the degree to which they are
perceived to be the homes of... public officials who abuse
their office for personal gain."
• Travelers'
Health-- From the U.S. Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention, including information on countries and
regions.
• United Nations Population Fund--
"World's largest international source of funding for
population and reproductive health programmes." This U.N.
site provides much information, news, and analysis on
world population issues, including the annual State
of World Population report, free online.
• United
States Census Bureau's International Programs Section-- A rich computerized data bank containing
statistical tables of past, present, and projected
demographic and socio-economic data for most countries and
all areas of the world.
• Universal Currency Converter-- This
full version of the Universal Currency Converter figures
rates among over 180 currencies. A standard
version is also available for most uses.
• Universities Worldwide-- Searchable
database of links to thousands of universities in over 200
countries.
• Voter
Turnout
from 1945 to Date-- From the International Institute
for Democracy and Electoral Assistance, a database and
analysis of voting participation in scores of countries,
for parliamentary and presidential elections. Results are
available in various comparative forms.
• Weather Forecasts and Climates--
Current global weather and forecasts are found at AccuWeather, CNN, Intellicast Global, Qwikcast, and The Weather Channel. Weatherbase
gives climatological descriptions, historical weather
patterns, records, and averages around the world.
• World
Database of Happiness-- "An ongoing register of
scientific research on subjective appreciation of life. It
brings together findings that are scattered throughout
many studies and provides a basis for synthetic studies."
Includes data by country. From Erasmus University in
Rotterdam.
• WORLDTIME-- Features an interactive
world atlas, information on local time, sunrise and sunset
times in several hundred cities, and a database of public
holidays worldwide.
• World
Time Server-- Gives current local times in cities
and countries, including real time adjustments for
daylight savings time, and compares time differences among
places for a given future date. Includes maps.
• World
Values Survey-- Insightful results and analysis of a
major international academic team's investigation of
sociocultural and political attitudes and their changes,
through representative surveys of the basic values and
beliefs of publics in scores of societies, covering a high
percentage of the world's population. Principal findings,
charts, methodology, bibliography, some articles online.
• Yahoo! Directory: Countries--
Provides key links to many informational topics for most
countries of the world.