Research Guides: Country Politics and Economy: Statistics and Data

General Resources

Sage Data This link opens in a new window
Use this if you need a range of data over multiple years, if you want to compare across countries, or if you need to download datasets. Includes World Bank, UN, and IMF data and lots more.

Statista: Country Reports
Start here for a range of the most recent stats on a country, including economic, social, and political indicators.

Economy and Economic Development Data

World Bank Data
Use this for a large range of stats on economy, health, education, urban development, and more. Browse by country for simple reports or browse by indicators for all available data.
International Monetary Fund: Country Information
Find country data and all IMF blogs and press releases on a specific country.

OECD iLibrary This link opens in a new window
Click on Statistics in order to find reports, browse by indicator, database, or statistical series.

Global Data Lab
Look up various economic and social indicators, and break it out by sub-region, rural or urban, and by wealth quartiles. This tool pulls data from the UN.
UNData
Browse by country for quick statistics on economic, social, and environment and infrastructure indicators. Use the Datamart for extensive data on many topics.
World Income Inequality Database
Find the GINI coefficient (measure of income inequality), median income and mean income for countries around the world.
UN Comtrade
A repository of official international trade statistics and relevant analytical tables.

Government and Social Data

World Bank: Worldwide Governance Indicators
Find country percentile rankings on accountability, political stability, government effectives, regulatory quality, rule of law, and control of corruption.
World Bank: GovData 360
Compilation of governance-related indicators from various sources on state capacity, efficiency, openness, inclusiveness, accountability, integrity, and trust in government.
United Nations Population Information Network
A guide to all of the UN sites with population data, includes links to UN sites and outline of data available.
IPU Parline
Global data for parliamentary governments, including statistics on elections, women in government, human rights, gender equality, and more.
Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance: Data & Tools
Various tools for finding information and data on global voter turnout, state of democracy, campaign finance, and more.
UNESCO Institute for Statistics
Statistics on education, science and technology, culture, and communication. Browse by country or by theme. This tool is good for an easy snapshot of a range of current statistics, but does not provide previous years' data.
World Health Organization
Comprehensive data on health in countries throughout the world.
OECD Better Life Index
Compare well-being across countries in the areas of material living conditions and quality of life
Transparency International
Find your country's Corruption Perceptions Index and Global Corruption Barometer scores. Choose the country from the drop down menu at the top.
Corruption Risk Forecast
Provides three different measures of a country's capacity to control corruption, assessment of government transparency, and a forecasting of corruption risks

Data by Region

Inter-American Development Bank: Data
Data on Latin America. Choose the dataset, view in Open Data, and then Visualize in order to view the data online.
Eurostat
From the European Union, statistics on a range of economic and social topics on European countries
UN Arab Region Data and Policy Support Hub

Global Public Opinion

World Values Survey: Online Analysis
This survey measures basic values and beliefs that relate to economics, politics, and society of people from over 100 countries. It has been conducted since 1981 by a group international social scientists, and is used by UN, World Bank, and governments around the world.
Global Barometer: Analysis Tool
Surveys in two waves of 2005-2011 and 2011-2013 covering Africa, Asia, South America, the Middle East, and countries of former Soviet Union. Measures attitudes about politics, power, reform, democracy, etc.
Canadian Opinion Research Archive
A research archive at Queen's University that sources commercial and independent surveys collected by major commercial Canadian firms, dating back to the 1970s.
European Commission Public Opinion Analysis
Public opinion surveys on European countries featuring face-to-face and telephone interviews, in-depth thematic studies, and qualitative studies.
European Social Survey
A cross-national survey conducted with face-to-face interviews, every two years, that measures the attitudes, beliefs and behavior patterns of diverse populations in more than thirty European nations.
Latin American Public Opinion Project
The Latin American Public Opinion Project conducts the AmericasBarometer, which surveys democratic public opinion and behavior in the Americas (North, Central, South and the Caribbean), to measure democratic values and behaviors in the Americas using national probability samples of voting-age adults.
Pew Research: Global Indicators Database
Perceptions on the U.S., the world economy, world leaders, balance of power, China, and major organizations.

Directories

Directories are a great resource for browsing for authoritative organizations that might collect the information you need.

International Statistical Agencies
A list of links to international organizations that collect statistics. Start here to browse for agencies that might collect the kind of information you need.
National Statistical Offices
A directory of governmental statistical offices for countries around the world.

World Bank Development Indicators

Indicators are specific measurements that offer clues as to whether a phenomenon is present or absent. This list is of commonly used indicators, but there are many more than this that may be useful to you depending on your research question.

Industrialization, Economic Policy and Debt dataset

Industry (including construction), value added by % GDP or by annual % growth
Manufacturing, value added % GDP or by annual % growth
Other comparable indicators for value added are agriculture and service

Urbanization, Environment dataset

Urban population, total, % growth, % of total population

Education, Education dataset

Literacy rate
Educational attainment, at least secondary, Master's, or doctorate (in Gender Statistics, Education dataset)

Inequality, Poverty dataset

GINI index
Income share held by highest or lowest %

Wealth from extractive industries, Environment dataset

Total natural resources rents (% of GDP)
Other more specific indicators for rents are oil, coal, natural gas, mineral, forest

Foreign aid, Economic Policy and Debt dataset

Net official aid received
Net official development assistance and official aid received

World Bank Metadata Glossary
Look up indicators by name for a full definition and how it is measured.

Sage Data Tutorial

This tutorial walks you through finding economic indicators from the World Bank in Sage Data (formerly known as Data Planet).