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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 and the University of
Oxford, 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."
Statista--
Provides free graphical presentation of statistics in a
daily chart, on a wide range of issues for
non-subscribers.
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."
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."
• 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."
• Nations Online--
Presents a wide range of information on countries,
continents, cities, languages, news, and other global
topics.
• 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.
• 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.