Full profiles provide an instant guide to history, politics and economic background of countries and territories, and background on key institutions.
They also include audio and video clips from BBC archives.

Unclassified since 1971, the Central Intelligence Agency's annual World Factbook provides a reliable resource for information on independent states, dependencies, areas of special sovereignty, uninhabitable regions, and oceans.

FAO country profiles highlight information as one of the priority areas in fighting hunger and achieving food security.

The Guardian's government data portal is a gateway to publicly-available national, regional, and local statistics records for the UK, USA, Australia, Canada, & New Zealand.

Provided by Michigan State University's Broad College of Business, globalEdge is a freemium global business knowledge resource that provides international business and trade information on over 200 countries, the 50 U.S. states, as well as nearly two dozen industry sectors, and many of the world’s trade blocs.

State Department Background Notes include facts about the land, people, history, government, political conditions, economy, and foreign relations of independent states, some dependencies, and areas of special sovereignty. The Background Notes are updated/revised by the Office of Electronic Information and Publications of the Bureau of Public Affairs as they are received from the Department's regional bureaus."

Provides direct links to the World Bank data catalog for each country along with access to the latest publications, news items, and development topics published by, or related to, World Bank operations.

AfDB’s mission is to help reduce poverty, improve living conditions for Africans and mobilize resources for the continent’s economic and social development.

Afrobarometer is an independent, nonpartisan research project that measures the social, political, and economic atmosphere in Africa.

AllAfrica is a voice of, by and about Africa - aggregating, producing and distributing 2000 news and information items daily from over 130 African news organizations and its own reporters to an African and global public.

The Arab Democracy Barometer was established in 2005 by scholars in the Arab world and the United States. The current wave of surveys seeks to measure and track over time citizen attitudes, values, and behavior patterns relating to pluralism, freedoms, tolerance and equal opportunity; social and inter-personal trust; social, religious and political identities; conceptions of governance and an understanding of democracy; and civic engagement and political participation.

CSAE carries out economic research with a particular focus on Africa. Its aim is to improve economic and social conditions in the poorest societies.

ESCWA to raise the level of economic activity in member countries and strengthen cooperation among them. It was also intended to meet the need of the countries in Western Asia for the services of a regional economic commission to promote the development efforts in the region.

ECA was established in 1958 as one of the UN's five regional commissions. ECA's mandate is to promote the economic and social development of its member States, foster intra-regional integration, and promote international cooperation for Africa's development.

ASEAN encourages cooperation in the economic, social, cultural, technical, educational and other fields, and in the promotion of regional peace and stability through abiding respect for justice and the rule of law and adherence to the principles of the United Nations Charter.

ESCAP is the regional development arm of the United Nations for the Asia-Pacific region. ESCAP is the most comprehensive of the five regional United Nations social and economic commissions. It is also the largest United Nations body serving the Asia-Pacific region with over 600 staff.

(Covers former Soviet bloc countries)

The Council of Europe seeks to develop throughout Europe, common and democratic principles based on the European Convention on Human Rights and other reference texts on the protection of individuals.

UNECE is one of five regional economic and social development commissions of the United Nations. UNECE's major aim is to promote pan-European economic integration, promote greater economic integration and cooperation among its member countries and sustainable development and economic prosperity.

The ACS provides a forum for political dialogue that allows members to identify areas of common interest and concern including the preservation and conservation of the Caribbean Sea, trade and economic external relations, natural disasters, and transportation.

CESLA is a centre dedicated to the analysis of Latin American economies functioning under the umbrella of the Klein Institute of the Autonomous University of Madrid.

ECLAC is one of five regional commissions of the United Nations founded with the purpose of contributing to the economic development of Latin America, coordinating actions directed towards this end, reinforcing economic ties among countries and with other nations of the world, and promoting\ the region's social development.

The Hispanic American Periodicals Index (HAPI) is your source for over 275,000 journal article citations about Central America, South America, the Caribbean, Mexico, Brazil, and Hispanics/Latinos in the United States.

(Spanish, English, Portuguese)

The IDB is the main source of multilateral financing and expertise for sustainable economic, social and institutional development in Latin America and the Caribbean.

The AmericasBarometer, one of the activities of LAPOP, is the only survey of democratic public opinion and behavior that covers the Americas (North, Central, South and the Caribbean). It is an effort by LAPOP to measure democratic values and behaviors in the Americas using national probability samples of voting-age adults

(Spanish, English, Portuguese)

Latinobarómetro is an annual public opinion survey that involves some 19,000 interviews in 18 Latin American countries, representing more than 400 million inhabitants.

The OAS uses a four-pronged approach to effectively implement its essential purposes. The Organization’s four main pillars––democracy, human rights, security, and development––support each other and are intertwined through political dialogue, inclusiveness, cooperation, and legal and follow-up instruments that provide the OAS with the tools to maximize its work in the Hemisphere.

(English, Spanish, Portuguese)

MOxLAD represents a partnership between the Universidad de la Republica, Montevideo, and Oxford University. The object of the partnership is to extend and renovate the data base previously known as OxLAD, and develop associated activities. The data base contains statistical series for a wide range of economic and social indicators covering twenty countries in the region for the twentieth century and beyond. Its purpose is to provide economic and social historians worldwide with a systematic collection of available statistical information in a single on-line source.