The Factbook provides maps and information on the history, people, government, economy, energy, geography, communications, transportation, military, and transnational issues for 267 world entities.
These lengthy annual reports provide a summary of the political, economic, and social conditions in many countries. Choose Country Reports to access them.
Offers analysis and commentary on major national and international events.
The Political Handbook of the World provides timely, thorough, and accurate political information, with more in-depth coverage of current political controversies than any other reference guide. The updated 2022-2023 edition will continue to be the most authoritative source for finding complete facts and analysis on each country’s governmental and political makeup. Compiling in one place more than 200 entries on countries and territories throughout the world, this volume is renowned for its extensive coverage of all major and minor political parties and groups in each political system. It also provides names of key ambassadors and international memberships of each country, plus detailed profiles of more than 30 intergovernmental organizations and UN agencies. And this update will aim to include coverage of current events, issues, crises, and controversies from the course of the last two years.
In addition to the featured resources below, also see our Guide to Statistics for links to the best statistical resources on the Internet, arranged by subject area.
The Penn World Table provides purchasing power parity and national income accounts converted to international prices for 189 countries for some or all of the years 1950-2007. The European Union or the OECD provide more detailed purchasing power and real product estimates for their countries and the World Bank makes current price estimates for most PWT countries at the GDP level.
(189 countries, 1950-2007, 2005 as base year)
The MacroDataGuide is a user’s guide to researchers and students worldwide in search of high quality data for social science research. It informs not only on which data are out there and where they can be found, it also provides a qualitative assessment of these resources.
The Global Terrorism Database (GTD) is an open-source database including information on terrorist events around the world from 1970 through 2013 (with annual updates planned for the future). Unlike many other event databases, the GTD includes systematic data on domestic as well as international terrorist incidents that have occurred during this time period and now includes more than 125,000 cases.
The Latinobarometer is a cross-national comparative survey programme in 18 Latin American countries. It investigates the development of democracy and economies as well as societies, using indicators of opinion, attitudes, behaviour and values.
The GSS contains a standard 'core' of demographic, behavioral, and attitudinal questions, plus topics of special interest. The GSS takes the pulse of America, and is a unique and valuable resource. It has tracked the opinions of Americans over the last four decades.
This organization does many survey-based research studies of political and civic engagement. Recent reports available here include "Social Media and Political Engagement", "The Civic and Community Engagement of Religiously Active Americans", and "The Internet and Civic Engagement".
Search for demographic data related to population, economy, business, education, employment, families & living, housing, health, income & poverty, international trade, and the public sector, etc.
The Polity IV dataset covers all major, independent states in the global system over the period 1800-2014 (i.e., states with a total population of 500,000 or more in the most recent year; currently 167 countries).
Access to the full range of official statistical information produced by the Federal Government without having to know in advance which Federal agency produces which particular statistic
The study of urban and local politics in the United States has long been hindered by a lack of centralized sources of election data. We introduce a new dataset of about 78,000 candidates in 57,000 electoral contests that encompasses races for seven distinct local political offices in most medium and large cities and counties in the U.S. over the last three decades.
Detailed breakdowns of voting and registration by sex, age, race, state, and other dimensions. Coverage runs from the mid-1960s through the present day.
National exit polls consist of presidential and/or congressional vote questions in addition to questions on gubernatorial races, important issues affecting the vote decision, presidential approval and a number of current national issues.
REQUIRES AUTHORIZATION - SEE INSTRUCTIONS FOR REQUESTING PERMISSION.
This series is the official documentary historical record of major U.S. foreign policy decisions that have been declassified and edited for publication.
An impressive collection of presidential documents, including the text of press conferences, executive orders, state of the union addresses, and the Public Papers of the Presidents. 1923 - Present
Constructed and maintained by the Wilson Center’s History and Public Policy Program, the Digital Archive contains newly declassified historical materials from archives around the world—much of it in translation and including diplomatic cables, high level correspondence, meeting minutes and more.
Supports the Cold War International History Project, the North Korea International Documentation Project, and the Nuclear Proliferation International History Project.
A digital library of public policy research, containing thousands of reports and documents from research institutes and think tanks across the country.
International Conflicts, 1816-2010 by 
Statistical Abstract of the United States
