Afghanistan: Selected Websites

Published annually, African South of the Sahara is a go-to source for background information about countries south of the Sahara. Entries for each country include physical and social geography, history, economy, and a statistical survey. A Directory found at the end of each country entry provides information about the government including the name of the head of state and other officials. Finally, a bibliography accompany each country entry provides a list of up-to-date books for further reading.

Spirit and Power: A 10-Country survey of Latin America (Penn State University Libraries). Free online.

A research guide that provides a single source for yearbooks published online (University of Wisconsin Libraries)

Used to evaluate population, health, and nutrition programs. Focuses on women and children particularly, e.g. family planning, maternal and child care, child survival, HIV?AIDS/sexually transmitted infections (STIs), etc. Often includes summary statistics along with micro data.

A good place to look for country profiles and statistics (CEPALSTAT) on the countries of Latin America including the Caribbean

This monographic serial, call # JN1 .E87, is located in the Reference Collection (1st Floor) of Gitenstein Library. The library holds volumes from the 30th ed. (1989) to date. Europa World is one of the best reference works for obtaining especially economic and policitcal background information on countries around the world.

Published annually, The Far East and Australasia is a go-to source for background information about countries ranging from Australia to Vietnam. Entries for each country include physical and social geography, history, economy, and a statistical survey. A Directory found at the end of each country entry provides information about the government including the name of the head of state and other officials. Finally, a bibliography accompany each country entry provides a list of up-to-date books for further reading.

ICPSR, the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research, established in 1962 at the University of Michigan—Ann Arbor, provides access to a vast archive of social science data including government studies and polls and surveys conducted by organizations and individual researchers. ICPSR hosts a number of special topic archives, including the Health and Medical Care Archive (HMCA), Child Care and Early Education (Research Connections), Data Preservation Alliance for the Social Sciences (Data-PASS), Data Sharing for Demographic Research (DSDR), the Resource Center for Minority Data (RCMD), the National Archive of Computerized Data on Aging (NACDA), the National Archive of Criminal Justice Data (NACJD), Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods (PHDCN), the National Addicition & HIV Data Archive Program (NAHDAP), and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Data Archive (SAMHDA). ICPSR’s analysis-ready collections include 7,000 data collections and over 500,000 individual data files in SAS, SPSS, and Stata formats and detailed technical documentation in Portable Document Format. ICPSR also maintains a bibliography of Data-Related Literature containing over 40,000 citations to publications based on ICPSR data, with links to full text of publications and associated data.

The Roper Center for Public Opinion Research, located at Cornell University, is one of the world’s leading archives of social science data, specializing in data from public opinion surveys. Roper iPoll offers a vast collection of surveys from Gallup, Harris, Roper, the New York Times, and many other organizations covering national public opinion. iPoll allows for searches at the question-level, allowing you to sift through more than half a million questions asked since 1935. See also their topical collections for pre-made tables, graphs, and searches. Click on the magnifying glass to see survey responses. Questions with a green plus icon have crosstab breakdowns; those with an X have microdata available for download; while those with a green and blue star icon allow you to perform custom crosstab analysis online. (To download or analyze data online, you’ll need to set up a free account.)

University of Minnesota Libraries have collected census data from around the world, including many Latin American countries. Free online, but register to download data. Provides micro-level rather than summary statistics, and requires access to SPSS or other statistics software.

Sponsored by the World Bank

Published annually, Middle East and North Africa is a go-to source for background information about countries located in North African and Southwest Asia. Entries for each country include physical and social geography, history, economy, and a statistical survey. A Directory found at the end of each country entry provides information about the government including the name of the head of state and other officials. Finally, a bibliography accompany each country entry provides a list of up-to-date books for further reading.

The Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development sponsors this excellent source of country statistics.

(Dates vary, some content updated daily) Statista is a statistics portal that provides access to data from more than 18,000 sources. Results from customized search queries include lists of statistics, as well as studies and reports (including, in some cases, completed PowerPoint presentations) that place these statistics within a broader context. All data and statistics can be exported as PDFs or Excel files. Additional features include infographics; revenue forecasts on more than 400 industries; extensive coverage of the international digital economy; and “Statistic Dossiers” – comprehensive reports on specific subjects.

An open-source component of the World Development Indicators Online, not licensed by TCNJ Library. The open-access Key Development Data and Statistics component of the larger database is well worth a visit for any researcher looking for country statistics.

The World Health Organization (WHO) of the United Nations provides access to information and statistics about important health-related issues, particularly in the so-called "developing" world (e.g. air pollution, blindness, climate change, contraception, female genital mutilation, infectious diseases, and many other topics.