Economics

These links are just selections of certain major gateways to information.  Use a site like the UN Directory of National Statistical Offices to locate statistics from countries that are not on this list.  Also, Google is your friend when searching for specific data series.  For general searching, keep it simple - a country, topic, and "statistics" works well (e.g. "China Export Statistics" as your search term). Print statistical reports and subscription statistical databases may be located by searching QuickSearch for "Statistics" and a subject term.      

Unsure where to start?  Try these comprehensive compilations of official data.

• Global Financial Data the most complete collection of historical and current financial and economic data available in the world. Covering more than 150 different countries, it provides over 6000 different data series for download or charting.
• International Financial Statistics (IMF)  contains detailed financial and macroeconomic statistics for many countries, from 1945 to the present, updated monthly.
• OECD.stat  comprehensive database of statistics produced by OECD about member countries
• UNdata comprehensive search of all United Nations data sources
• World Bank data All World Bank data, including World Development Indicators, are now freely available

The following are some specialized sources for international trade:

COMTRADE (UN) provides International Merchandise Trade Statistics and related data.  Detailed imports and exports by product and country.

WTO International Trade and Tariff Data includes WTO Trade Statistics and comprehensive tariff data by Harmonized System code.

WITS (World Integrated Trade Solution) developed by the World Bank, this database allows access to COMTRADE, TRAINS (UN tariff data), IDB and CTS databases (additional tariff databases).

• AidData integrates major sources of international aid and recipients into a searchable database
• Arms Transfers and Military Expenditures (SIPRI)
• Asian Development Bank open access repository
• Bank for International Settlements publishes international banking and financial statistics
• Barro-Lee dataset for international comparisons of education from 1950 to present
• Business Research Guide (RUL Business Research Guide)
• Central Banks links from the Bank for International Settlements
• CEPR Data from the Centre for Economic Policy Research, including international trade and investment data
• CIA World Factbook
• CIESIN  (Center for International Earth Science Information Network) - multiple highly interactive database projects including social indicators of development, China GIS data, and more.
• CIAO  Columbia International Affairs Online - working papers, conference proceedings, and research reports on international affairs. Includes information from American Enterprise Institute, Brookings Institution, Cato Institute, London School of Economics, and more.
• CISSTAT statistics on the members of the Commonwealth of Independent States (former Soviet Union)
• Corruption Perception Index (Internet Center for Corruption Research)
• Country Studies (Library of Congress)
• Cross-National Time Series provides access to the data from over 250 countries, over 200 series and data beginning in the year 1815.
• Datahub part of the Linked Open Data Cloud, this site archives about 4000 datasets covering a wide range of topics and countries.
• Data-Planet indexes a wide range of government and private sources, with convenient ways to graph, export, and combine data.
• Development Gateway
• Development Goals targets for development, poverty reduction, etc.
• EconData and Links (Shaw)
• Econometriclinks - software, code and data from the Econometrics Journal
• Economagic  numerous collected data and statistics
• Economic Growth Data Sets (Temple)
• Economic History Services (EH.net) data series in economic history
• EIU.com  Country Commerce and Country Finance reports from the Economist Intelligence Unit provide annual overviews of economic conditions in major countries
• Financial Data Finder (Ohio State University)
• Food and Agriculture Organization Statistics (FAO)
• Foreign Exchange Converter and Calculator
• Foreign Exchange Converter and Calculator (OANDA)
• Foreign Exchange Daily Rates - Historical (OANDA)
• Foreign Exhange Daily and Historical Rates (PACIFIC)
• Foreign Trade (Census Bureau)
• G8 Information Center
• Gapminder Hans Rosling's nonprofit foundation distributing development data, including dynamic, interactive graphs.
• GenderStats database of gender statistics from the World Bank
• Geohive easy access to general information on world population and economy. Interesting country and city rankings.
• Global Financial Data the most complete collection of historical and current financial and economic data available in the world. Covering more than 150 different countries, it provides over 6000 different data series for download or charting.
• Global Migrant Origin Database
• Groningen Growth and Development Centre  Total Economy Database and other indicators of economic growth 
• Heritage Foundation Index of Economic Freedom descriptions of country's economic environment, along with interactive form allows retrieval of data from 1995 on for each country
• Historical Public Debt Database (IMF)
• ICPSR  (Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research) large collection of data from previously published academic studies, with a browseable subject classification. 
• Immigration Data Hub from the Migration Policy Institute
• International Data Base (Census Bureau) includes world population projections
• International Finance Corporation (IFC) publications
• International Financial Statistics (IMF)  contains detailed financial and macroeconomic statistics for many countries, from 1945 to the present, updated monthly.
• International Labor Comparisons (Census Bureau)
• International Labour Organizationincludes 
  • ILOLEX database of international labor standards
  • KILM Key Indicators of the Labor Market
  • LABORSTA core labor statistics for 200 countries from 1969 on, including labor migration statistics
  • NATLEX database of international labor law
  • IPEC-SIMPOC Statistical Information and Monitoring Programme on Child Labour
• International Monetary Fund (IMF) publications include Staff Country Reports, World Economic Outlook, Annual Report, International Capital Markets, Working Papers, and more.
• International Monetary Fund's Dissemination Standards Bulletin Board  (IMF DSBB) describes methodology, frequency, and publication methods for many countries' economic data.
• International Monetary Fund's Multilingual Terminology Directory financial terms translated
• Integrated Public Use Microdata Sample (IPUMS) - International collects detailed census records from many countries
• International Trade Administration (ITA) US Dept. of Commerce
• International Trade Centre (UNCTAD) infobases include trade data from COMTRADE.
• International Trade Law Treaties (Lexmercatoria)
• Joint External Debt Hub -  BIS-IMF-OECD-World Bank statistics on external debt
• Journal of Applied Econometrics Datasets
• Luxembourg Income Study and the Luxembourg Employment Study are both cross-national studies of income and employment
• Market Access Database developed by the EU, reports on trade barriers in more than 50 countries
• Medieval and Early Modern Database (MEMDB) Rutgers database of historical economic data
• Microdata - links to major worldwide microdata sources.
• Mortality Database (World Health Organization)
• National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) Data includes Jones-Obstfeld savings and investment data, Feenstra trade data, Sabelhaus consumer expediture survey extracts, pre-WWII macro database, and more.
• National Bureau of Economic Research Macrohistory Database
• Net Data Directory - various collections of data about the Internet itself
• Numeric Data Guide (SCC) searchable numeric data guide from the Rutgers University Libraries Scholarly Communication Center
• OECD iLibrary books, journals and statistical publications from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development
• OECD.stat  comprehensive database of statistics produced by OECD about member countries
• Office of Population Research Data Archive (Princeton)
• Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has many online documents and statistics. See SourceOECD for full access to subscribed publications.
• Penn World Tables (University of Toronto)
• Polling the Nations searchable international poll results from a variety of sources
• Population Reference Bureau's DataFinder
• Poverty Reduction and Equity (World Bank) includes Poverty Monitoring Database 
• Real Time Data (Croushore) provides links to sources of vintage data (as released at past points in time, not as later revised) for use in studying forecasting methodology
• SICE Foreign Trade Information System of the OAS
• Social Science Data on the Net (University of California, San Diego)  Search or browse. With excellent annotations.
• Stock and Commodity Exchanges (RUL Business Resources)
• Sustainable Rural Development Information System (SRDIS) data on natural resources, economy, and environment.
• Taxes (Princeton FAQ) summary of available resources on tax
• Terra Populus - integrated data on world population and environment
• Time Series Data Library Rob Hyndman's collection of over 500 time series organized by subject
• Top Incomes Database (Paris School of Economics) reports on changes in income distribution over time among major world economies
• Topics in Development (World Bank) Browse World Bank publications and data by topic.
• TRAINS UNCTAD Trade Analysis and Information System with data on worldwide imports, exports, and tariffs.
• Transparency International includes data on corruption around the world
• UNdata comprehensive search of all United Nations data sources
• United Nations Development Programme  publishes many studies, such as the Human Development Report
• United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) statistical database
• United Nations Public Adminstration Network reports and data on governments worldwide
• United Nations Statistical Databases Online
• United Nations Statistical Division Common Database  (UNSTATS) over 300 historical data series
• United Nations Statistics Division
• United Nations Survey of Crime
• United Nations Treaty Collection
• University of Texas Inequality Project (UTIP) includes downloadable Theil statistics for countries worldwide.
• WebEc Economics Data
• World Bank data All World Bank data, including World Development Indicators, are now freely available
• World Bank Open Knowledge  and World Bank publications Beginning in 2012, World Bank research is being made available open access through the Open Knowledge site.  Other publications not available for free online download are usually available in print at Alexander Library.
• World Bank Economic Research includes link to datasets
• World Development Indicators (World Bank)  Complete coverage of major indicators from 1960 to the present for all countries tracked by the World Bank.
• World Development Report complete contents of this major annual publicaion of the World Bank since its inception in 1978,
• World Economic Forum produces the Global Competitiveness Report, Global Information Technology report, and others.
• World Federation of Exchanges contains data on market capitalization and trading activity on many world stock markets.
• World Health Organization publications including World Health Report
• World Income Inequality Database data from 1950 on
• World Resources Institute produces datasets and publications on the environment, along with their Earthtrends information portal.
• World Tax Database
• World Trade Organization includes Tariff Analysis Database
• Worldwide Tax Summaries (PWC)