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GLBL 200: Introducing Library Research: Statistical Sources

Guide for introductory research class in global studies

Country Information

  • EIU Country Intelligence – Provides quarterly analysis and forecasts of the political, economic and business environment for nearly 200 countries. Quarterly and annual statistics of at least 150 data points. Country Intelligence contains country reports and profiles, risk ratings, licensing and trading information for the new economies, plus G-8 and regional forecasts. An online newsletter, Business Middle East, is also included.
  • Europa World Plus – Combines the Europa World Yearbook and the Europa Regional Survey of the World in an online resource. An absolutely fantastic site for country information including current news on elections, recent events, and even allows you to compare statistics between countries of the world..
  • CIA World Factbook   – Frequent updates – includes map, overview, politics, economics, population, and more. Last section for entry usually includes “transnational issues” including internal disputes.

Statistical Sources

  • ICPSR – The Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research archives a large number of datasets. If you have problems downloading any of these, please contact ATLAS for assistance.
  • Eurostats – The European Union collects a large number of statistics about its member countries.
  • OECD Library – Click the statistics tab at the top of the page for information on both developing and developed economies.
  • ProQuest Statistical Insights – This database includes statistical datasets and statistical publications from the US Government, UN, EU, OECD, and private sector sources.
  • United Nations Statistics Division – Compiles economic, development, and environmental statistics from international sources, and provides resources on statistical and data collection methods.
  • Pew Research Center – Center is well know for the polling it does in many areas, but especially the Internet.
  • World Bank Data Catalog – The data catalog is a listing of available World Bank datasets, including databases, pre-formatted tables, reports, and other resources.
  • IMF Data and Statistics – Includes data from the International Monetary Fund as well as manuals, guides, and other material on statistical practices of the statistical community at large.
  • DataPlanet - Provides access to statistical data produced by U.S. Federal agencies, States, private organizations, and major intergovernmental organizations. There are over 185+ billion data points available in charts, maps, views, rankings, time series and tables in the Data Planet repository. Data Planet offers powerful capabilities to compare & contrast multiple data series, perform statistical calculations on the data, and customize output views.