Virtual Library

This WWW Virtual Library: International Affairs Resources is an Internet directory of over 2000 annotated links to high-quality English-language sources of information and analysis in many international and global studies topics. Sites are carefully selected for their long-term value, favoring those with cost-free, authoritative information and analysis online.

GENERAL RESOURCES FOR INFORMATION FOR ALL COUNTRIES

 

Major Sources for World and Country Data and Statistics
Other Sources for World and Country Information


Major Sources for World and 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 specific topic of your interest.


Zanran is a specialized search engine to find ''semi-structured" data online, "the numerical data... presented as graphs and tables and charts," such as "a graph in a PDF report, or a table in an Excel spreadsheet, or a bar chart shown as an image in an HTML page... [which are] difficult to find using conventional search engines, which are focused primarily on finding text rather than graphs, tables and bar charts."


Data Planet has an excellent set of LibGuides to orient your search for data and statistics about many topics and countries.

Google offers a public statistical data search facility and a much broader Dataset Search.

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 online. Check the Data page to find your statistical topic. A Dataset page provides central access to large IMF macroeconomic and financial data banks for download.


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."


Knoema World Data Atlas-- Very useful online data and statistical analysis application for key current and time series statistics for every country, "bringing relevant indicators [from many standard sources] into a common space, visualizing figures, applying analytical functions, creating a set of dashboards, and presenting the outcome." Good maps, charts, and graphs. Note the useful Data Insights section, for "ready-to-use visualizations and reports on various topics compiled by the team of our experts."


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.


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 data and statistics search facilities are available 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.

Our World in Data-- From the the Global Change Data Lab, insightful "online publication that shows how living conditions around the world are changing. It communicates this empirical knowledge through interactive data visualizations (charts and maps) and by presenting the research findings on global development that explain what drives the changes that we see and what the consequences of these changes are."


UK Data Service-- UK's academic data service for a "single point of access to a wide range of secondary data including large-scale government surveys, international macrodata, business microdata, qualitative studies and census data."


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. Note the annual World Statistics Pocketbook in PDF.


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.


WomanStats Project-- The "largest cross-national compilation of data, statistics, and maps on the status of women worldwide... organized by country [with] over 350 variables for 176 countries."


World Bank Data-- The World Bank Group's extensive data resources are organized and available through this page, with pointers to social, governance, financial, economic, and climate statistics, data, and reports. The Countries and Economies page presents time-series tables of key indicators by country. Also see the country data and analysis available at the Where We Work page. The Gender Data Portal is an electronic database of gender equality statistics and indicators, by country and category.


ZACAT-- "Social science data portal allowing you to search for, browse, analyse and download social science survey data, provided by GESIS-- Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences."


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Other Sources for World and 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.

• Central Intelligence Agency of the United States publishes a 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.


Constitute-- Major project presents "the world’s constitutions to read, search, and compare," translated into English and current for most independent states. Interface allows full-text download in PDF, filtered search, topical approach, and comparison and contrast capabilities, among others.

Country Reports on Human Rights Practices-- Texts of yearly reports by the U.S. Department of State, and related documents.


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."

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.


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 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 Electoral 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 excellent site from Sweden offers news, analyses, and many databases relevant to elections and political participation.

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.

Nation Master-- Great site for comparative statistics, especially for business purposes. "Track thousands of statistics as and when they are released. The database is composed of data from trustworthy sources such as national statistic agencies, governments, international organizations."


Pew Research Center-- Excellent "nonpartisan fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping the world [through] public opinion polling, demographic research, content analysis and other data-driven social science research." Note the International Affairs page and the Global Indicators Database, which allows users to find poll results on diverse topics in the scores of countries where Pew has done surveys.

Population Reference Bureau-- Excellent for authoritative data and analysis on world, regional, and national population and demographics trends. Features a large multimedia repository. 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 Data section has comparable data on hundreds of population, health, and environment indicators for over 200 countries, world regions and sub-regions, and the world as a whole.


Regional and Country Profiles-- From the world-class Electronic Development and Environment Information System (Eldis), a wide variety of detailed country-specific information and analysis.


The Time Now-- "Current time of any location in the world... daylight saving time, time zones, currencies, country calling codes, detailed weather and forecast, sunrise and sunset, moon rise and moon set, coordinates, nearby cities, nearby airports and local businesses opening times and other information when available."

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.

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.

Universal Currency Converter-- The Universal Currency Converter figures rates among over 180 currencies.

Universities Worldwide-- Database of links to thousands of universities in over 200 countries.

• Weather Forecasts and Climates-- Current global weather and forecasts are found at AccuWeather. Weatherbase gives climatological descriptions, historical weather patterns, records, and averages around the world.


World Happiness Report--  From the Sustainable Development Solutions Network, "landmark survey of the state of global happiness... describe[s] how measurements of well-being can be used effectively to assess the progress of nations. The reports review the state of happiness in the world today and show how the new science of happiness explains personal and national variations in happiness," with national rankings.

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, studies online.


Xe Currency Converter-- Check exchange rates among many national currencies, with "the world's trusted currency authority," using mid-market rates, "for informational purposes only." Includes many handy additional features regarding currencies.



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This section of the WWW Virtual Library system was created, and is edited and maintained, by Dr. Wayne A.Selcher, Professor of International Studies Emeritus, Department of Political Science, Elizabethtown College, Elizabethtown, PA 17022-2288  U.S.A., as a volunteer and non-profit public service. This website copyright 1997-present by Wayne A. Selcher. E-mail: wayneselcher@comcast.net