Finding Data & Statistics: Country Statistics & Data

The 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.

Full 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.

Has official data, definitions, methodologies and sources for more than 60 indicators to measure progress towards the Millennium Development Goals.

Provides direct access to official documents reflecting the views of United Nations Member States by bringing together in one place documents available elsewhere.

United 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.

The 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.

Each 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.

Top place to look for European statistics on economy and finance, population and social conditions, industry, trade, and services, agriculture and fisheries, transport, environment and energy, science and technology, and general and regional statistics.

The latest economic statistics and population estimates for most countries and areas of the world. Issued by the United Nations.

Canada's national statistical agency. Includes data on the Canadian economy, population, labour force, education, health and much more.

Links to 15 free databases from UN Statistics Division Statistical Databases

From the World Bank. World Development Indicators plus other international indicators.

Extensive list of statistical sites. Also links to international government info arranged by country and/or topic. From the University of Michigan Documents Center.

List arranged by subject. From UC Berkeley.

Links to the official statistical agencies of foreign countries.

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.

Statistics 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.

International 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.

Statistical and epidemiological data from the World Health Organization (WHO). Includes links to statistical information found in the chief WHO statistical volume, the World Health Report.

From the Chronic Poverty Advisory Network. A listing of studies by country.

World Bank.

The 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).

The International Household Survey Network (IHSN) has established a web-based Central Survey and Census Catalog, which provides users with access to selected survey and census metadata, documentation and datasets. Access to underlying electronic files is enforced and controlled according to each official depositor’s policy.

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.

Alan 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.

The UNU-WIDER World Income Inequality Database (WIID) collects and stores information on income inequality for developed, developing, and transition countries. The database and its documentation are available on this website.

The IGO data sets contain information about intergovernmental organizations (international organizations that have at least 3 nation-states as their members) from 1815-2000. The IGO data are collected at 5-year intervals from 1815-1965, and annually thereafter.