International Organizations
Each country collects and disseminates information about their country, economy, business outlook and relationship with other nations. For instance, the United States publishes information via the Census webpages. So as you know, here I can find information about the size of the population, the age, income and education. Data from the Census is very involved and extensive. The Census also publishes what they call the Economic Census. This is primarily business data and is collected and published every 5 years. That data is accessible on the Economic Census website The website incudes information about how many businesses are located in the US and then by state and community. It covers topics that include how many people are employed in those industries and how much they earn. Of course all of this data is broken down into easy to use segments by NAICS co
des.
Another resource that the library provides access to is a publication called the Statistical Abstracts of the US. Stat Abstracts lists, in searchable and then table form, almost all of the data that is reported by the federal government. The data is current to the publication year and most charts include historical data. Collected Statistical Abstracts data goes back into the early 19th century.
Countries are very good about making this narrative and number data available on the web. Although, sometimes finding a country's data site can be difficult. Many websites are in a different language. Their measurements and categories can be different but most developed countries show and will share similar numbers.
To help you find the number data that you need, the library has developed a web page with a list of links to the data sites for most countries. This list was originally developed by the Census but it was removed a year ago. We downloaded and updated the site and content.
International Statistics by Country - https://www.highpoint.edu/library/international-statistics/
The US also publishes information to encourage other countries to trade with the United States. Here is the link to the US Trade Representative. This site allows the searcher to find information about countries but primarily lists countries trade agreements with the US. Search by region or use the map and search by country.
Trade Agreements - Office of the US Trade Representative
U.S. Bilateral Relations is another government department that collects information on US Trade. This site is very specific - I can find a country by name and it provides a short narrative about the country along the relationship they share with the US and then includes information on current trade agreements. At the end of each narrative there are more links to further information - a very useful site!
The researcher can make use of the data provided by NGOs - Non Governmental Organizations. NGOs provide advocacy and support with a special aspect of international concerns such as deforestation, literacy and the ocean and most are associated and supported by the United Nations.
There are other world organizations that we can tap for data. These are mostly interested in issues of economies. Two that we use quite often are the IMF - International Monetary Fund - and the OECD - Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Both of these are great sites for data. Countries of the OECD include the larger world economies and they work together. Data about those member countries are included on the website as well as information about other countries. Also the OECD publishes the OECD Economic Outlook. This publication has been published for years. You can do a host of research on a country with this extensive data.
The other site that provides data on countries of the world is the IMF - the International Monetary Fund. This is also a member organization and is best known for loaning monies to countries for development and infrastructure projects. Because of that relationship they provide some in-depth numbers on countries of the world.
IMF - International Monetary Fund
Finally, keep in mind that there are many other international and regional international organizations that provide data about countries.