Country Background & Statistical Information
Use these guides find cross national data sources by topic.
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International Government Data & StatisticsFrom UC Berkeley. List arranged by subject: Children & Families, Crime & Security, Development, Economics, Food & Commodities, Education & Culture, Environment, Health, Population, Politics & Elections, Social & Humanitarian, Urban & Housing, Women & Gender, Microdata, Open Data
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The MacroDataGuideThe MacroDataGuide is a tool that has been especially developed by the Norwegian Social Science Data Services to save researchers and students time and energy in their search for high quality social science macro data. While the main distinction is most often drawn between micro and macro data, the term 'meso data' is also sometimes used. Meso data generally refers to data on collective and cooperative actors such as commercial companies, organizations or political parties.
Use these sources for overviews of current issues in individual countries.
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Political Risk YearbookThe Political Risk Yearbook is an annual publication that “contains all 100 Political Risk Services’ Country Reports updated to the previous December, demarcated along regional lines, using the globally-recognized Coplin-O’Leary political risk rating methodology.” Included in Business Source Complete.
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Economist Intelligence Unit (UCSD Portal)Portal to UCSD-subscribed EIU content. Includes searchable online archive (1996- ) and feed of Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) global country publications. Strong on current political, economic, and business affairs worldwide.
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Europa World PlusEconomic, political, historical, and geographic profiles of countries and global regions. Contact info for political, business, media, and cultural agencies and officials. Search or browse by country, region, organization, or people. Access limited to 1 user at a time. Try again later if refused.
Use these sources to find country-level (and sometimes smaller) data on a plethora of topics.
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Data-PlanetProvides easy access to statistical data. Data is downloadable in Excel and CSV, and shapefiles when multiple geographies are covered. Sources include: Bombay Stock Exchange, British Bankers' Association, Chicago Board Options, Exchange, China Data Center, D&B (Dun & Bradstreet), Dave Leip's Atlas of US Presidential Elections, Defense Manpower Data Center, Deutsche Börse Group, Dow Jones, Easy Analytic Software Inc. (EASI), Eurostat, FTSE Group, HSI Services Limited (Hong Kong), International Monetary Fund, London Bullion Market Association , London Platinum & Palladium Market, NASDAQ OMX Group, National Bureau of Economic Research, Nikkei, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, Shanghai Stock Exchange, Standard & Poor's, World Bank, World Resource Institute, Xignite, and many US Federal agencies. See the Data-Planet Libguide for more detail.
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ProQuest Statistical Insight1973-present. Huge database of citations to statistical publications from U.S. federal and state governments, international agencies, nonprofit and educational institutions, and private publishers including trade and industry groups. Full text of the publication or report is often included, and many tables are downloadable in Excel. Particularly good for demographic and country-level information. Previous name Statistical Universe.
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ProQuest Statistical Abstracts of the WorldA collection of the statistical abstracts of various countries, both individually searchable and cross searchable. These statistical abstracts are generally issued by the national statistical offices of foreign governments and contain country-level data not easily found elsewhere. Global and regional statistical compendia issued by international organizations and research firms are also included.
Search the UN for data and statistics
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CIA World Fact BookAnnual survey, with profiles of all countries and territories from the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency.
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FAOSTATOn-line statistical databases covering international statistics in agriculture, food production, trade, forest products, fisheries and more. From the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).
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Human Development ReportFull text of UNDP Human Development Reports, from 1990 to the next to most current year, plus national Human Development Reports and an excellent statistics section on industrialized and developing countries.
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ILOSTATInternational Labour Organization (ILO) Database on International Labor Statistics, offering annual data from 1979 to the present for a wide range of variables, including employment and unemployment, earnings, wages, strikes and more.
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IMF eLibrary DataProvides comprehensive access to International financial statistics (IFS), Balance of payments statistics (BOPS), Direction of trade statistics (DOTS), and Government finance statistics (GFS) databases. View and download predefined data reports or create.
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InterAmerican Development Bank - Specialized DatasetsStatistics for Latin American countries, offering annual data (from 1990) on a wide range of variables, including national accounts, balance of payments, prices, labor statistics, and more.
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International Country Risk Guide: Table 3B: Political Risk Points by ComponentThe ICRG Researcher's Dataset - Table 3B provides annual averages of the 12 components of ICRG's Political Risk Ratings (Table 3B), as published in the International Country Risk Guide since 1984. Average ratings are provided for all countries covered by ICRG from 1984 through the last full calendar year.
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International Terrorism: Attributes of Terrorist Events (ITERATE), 1968 - [most recent]The ITERATE project is an attempt to quantify data on the characteristics of transnational terrorist groups, their activities which have international impact, and the environment in which they operate.
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Millennium Development Goals IndicatorsHas official data, definitions, methodologies and sources for more than 60 indicators to measure progress towards the Millennium Development Goals.
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Military Balance (Institute for Strategic Studies)Annual publication with detailed statistical information about the world's militaries including budget, enlisted personnel, and firepower.
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Monthly Bulletin of StatisticsThe latest economic statistics and population estimates for most countries and areas of the world. Issued by the United Nations.
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OECD iLibraryOECD iLibrary is the Organisation for Economic Cooperation & Development's Online Library for Books, Papers and Statistics and the gateway to its analysis and data. Coverage includes development, economics, education, energy, environment, scitech, social issues, and more.
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Penn World TableAlan Heston, Robert Summers, and Bettina Aten
The Penn World Table provides purchasing power parity and national income accounts converted to international prices for 168 countries for some or all of the years 1950-2000. You can download all the data and documentation from the download page or create a custom table in SAS or CSV format using a form. -
SIPRI Databases
Facts on international relations and security trends
SIPRI multilateral peace operations database
SIPRI military expenditure database
SIPRI arms transfers database
SIPRI arms embargoes database
SIPRI national reports database -
Statistics CanadaCanada's national statistical agency. Includes data on the Canadian economy, population, labour force, education, health and much more.
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Sustainable Development GoalsClick on "states" for country-level goals, statements, documents, and reports.
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UNdata"A World of Data." Single search interface for data produced and collected by various United Nations (UN) organizations.
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UN Member States On the RecordProvides direct access to official documents reflecting the views of United Nations Member States by bringing together in one place documents available elsewhere.
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UN Statistical DatabasesLinks to 15 free databases from UN Statistics Division Statistical Databases
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UNESCO Institute for StatisticsUnited Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) statistical institute website. Includes statistical data sets of world education and literacy indicators, and selected data from the UNESCO Statistical Yearbook.
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USAIDThe U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) is an independent agency that provides economic, development and humanitarian assistance around the world in support of the foreign policy goals of the United States. The site provides an overview of each county where the agency does work.
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World DataBankFrom the World Bank. World Development Indicators plus other international indicators.
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Country Studies from the Library of CongressEach online book contains historical and cultural background information on the country it covers. Formerly known as the Area Handbooks from the Department of the Army.
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International Statistical AgenciesLinks to the official statistical agencies of foreign countries.
More Business & Economics Sources
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UN Comtrade: Commodity Trade Statistics DatabaseUnited Nations database of detailed commodity imports and exports statistics by country, 1962-present.
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GDF online (Global Development Finance)GDF online offers external debt and financial flow data for the 135 countries that report public and publicly-guaranteed debt to the World Bank's Debtor Reporting System. The timeseries for 216 indicators run from 1970 to present.
Developing Country Surveys and Microdata
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Annotated Listing of Panel Datasets in Developing and Transitional CountriesFrom the Chronic Poverty Advisory Network. A listing of studies by country.
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Living Standards Measurement Study (LSMS)World Bank.
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Family Life Survey OverviewThe Family Life Surveys (FLS) are a set of detailed household and community surveys of developing countries conducted by the RAND Corporation, in collaboration with research institutions in the given countries. The currently available country surveys cover Malaysia (1976-77, 1988-89), Indonesia (1993, 1997, 2000), Guatemala (1995), and Bangladesh (1996).
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Integrated Public Use Microdata Series — International (IPUMS)IPUMS-International is a project dedicated to collecting and distributing census data from around the world. Its goals are to:
Collect and preserve data and documentation
Harmonize data
Disseminate the data absolutely free.
IPUMS requires user registration for access.
International Statistics & Comparative Datasets
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The MacroDataGuideThe MacroDataGuide was developed by the Norwegian Social Science Data Services to save researchers and students time and energy in their search for high quality social science macro data. While the main distinction is most often drawn between micro and macro data, the term 'meso data' is also sometimes used. Meso data generally refers to data on collective and cooperative actors such as commercial companies, organizations or political parties.
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The Quality of Government Institute - QoG DatasetsThe flagship datasest is the QoG Standard Dataset, which is available in both cross-section and time-series. The QoG Basic Dataset is easier to use, offering the most used and the most qualitative variables in terms of data from the QoG Standard Dataset. The QoG OECD covers countries who are members of the OECD. The EU Regional Data consists of approximately 450 variables from Eurostat and other sources. The QoG Expert Survey is a dataset based on our survey of experts on public administration around the world.
See codebook for comprehensive list of links to political science datasets on almost any political topic you can think of. -
Comparative Agendas Project: Datasets & CodebooksThe Comparative Agendas Project (CAP) assembles and codes information on the policy processes of governments from around the world.
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Data hosted at Institutions Hub from the Centre for Global Economic HistoryDatasets include: Adjusted state antiquity dataset; Extraction ratio; Government revenues relative to GDP; Latent democracy indicator, 1850-2000; Conflict Catalog (Violent Conflicts 1400 A.D. to the Present in Different Regions of the World); Homicide dataset, 1800-2000.
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Integrated Network for Societal Conflict Research (INSCR) Data PageDatasets include:
Armed Conflict and Intervention (ACI) Datasets: Forcibly Displaced Populations; Major Episodes of Political Violence; PITF State Failure Problem Set; High Casualty Terrorist Bombings; Memberships in Conventional Intergovernmental Organizations (CIO)
Polity IV: Regime Authority Characteristics and Transitions Datasets: Polity IV Annual Time-Series; Polity IVd Polity-Case Format; Coups d'Etat
State Fragility Index and Matrix: State Fragility Index and Matrix; State Fragility Index and Matrix, Time-Series Data
Conflict in India Datasets: Crime in India: Riots, Murders and Dacoity; India Sub-National Problem Set -
Correlates of War datasetsThe Correlates of War project collects and disseminates quantitative data in international relations. Datasets include: COW Country Codes; State System Membership; COW War Data; Militarized Interstate Disputes; Militarized Interstate Dispute Locations; National Material Capabilities; World Religion Data; Formal Alliances; Territorial Change; Direct Contiguity; Colonial/Dependency Contiguity; Intergovernmental Organizations; Diplomatic Exchange; Trade.
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Cross National Time-Series (CNTS)The Cross-National Time-Series Data Archive was launched by Arthur S. Banks in the fall of 1968 at the State University of New York at Binghamton. The archive was, in part, the outcome of an effort initiated some years earlier to assemble, in machine readable, longitudinal format, certain of the aggregate data resources of The Statesman's Yearbook, published since 1864. The archive has almost 200 variables and contains data for over 200 country units, with provision for entries from 1815 (excluding the two modern wartime periods, 1914-1918 and 1940-1945)
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International Country Risk Guide: Table 3B: Political Risk Points by ComponentThe ICRG Researcher's Dataset - Table 3B provides annual averages of the 12 components of ICRG's Political Risk Ratings (Table 3B), as published in the International Country Risk Guide since 1984. Average ratings are provided for all countries covered by ICRG from 1984 through the last full calendar year.
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International Terrorism: Attributes of Terrorist Events (ITERATE), 1968 - [most recent]The ITERATE project is an attempt to quantify data on the characteristics of transnational terrorist groups, their activities which have international impact, and the environment in which they operate.
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SIPRI Databases
Facts on international relations and security trends
SIPRI multilateral peace operations database
SIPRI military expenditure database
SIPRI arms transfers database
SIPRI arms embargoes database
SIPRI national reports database -
Status of World Nuclear ForcesFrequently updated estimates from the Federation of American Scientists.
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Transparency International researchCorruption Perceptions Index
Global Corruption Barometer
Bribe Payers Index
Featured Resource
Need basic background information on countries or international organizations?
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Europa World PlusEconomic, political, historical, and geographic profiles of countries and global regions. Contact info for political, business, media, and cultural agencies and officials. Search or browse by country, region, organization, or people. Access limited to 1 user at a time. Try again later if refused.