LibGuides: Political Science: Find Country Information

Country Overview Information

BBC News Country Profiles 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.
CIA World Factbook The World Factbook provides information on the history, people and society, government, economy, energy, geography, communications, transportation, military, and transnational issues for 267 world entities. The Reference tab includes: a variety of world, regional, country, ocean, and time zone maps; Flags of the World; and a Country Comparison function that ranks the country information and data in more than 75 Factbook fields.
Library of Congress Country Studies Contains the electronic versions of 80 books previously published in hard copy as part of the Country Studies Series by the Federal Research Division. Intended for a general audience, books in the series present a description and analysis of the historical setting and the social, economic, political, and national security systems and institutions of select countries throughout the world. Most books in the series deal with a single foreign country, but a few cover several countries or a geographic region. The series includes several books on countries that no longer exist in their original configuration—such as Czechoslovakia, East Germany, the Soviet Union, Sudan, and Yugoslavia. These books remain in the series because they continue to offer valuable historical information and perspective. In some cases, studies on successor states are also part of the series.
United Nations Human Development Reports Explore human development data from around the world using the interactive tools.

Demographics and Population Information

Demographic and Health Surveys (USAID) The Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) Program has collected, analyzed, and disseminated accurate and representative data on population, health, HIV, and nutrition through more than 400 surveys in over 90 countries.
IPUMS-International (Integrated Public Use Microdata Series- International) IPUMS-International (Integrated Public Use Microdata Series, International) is the world's largest collection of publicly available individual-level census data. The data are samples from population censuses from around the world taken since 1960.
U.S. Census International Data Base The International Data Base (IDB) offers a variety of demographic indicators for countries and areas of the world with a population of 5,000 or more. World and Region demographic indicators in the IDB, including population totals, exclude the populations of countries and areas with fewer than 5,000 people. The IDB has provided access to demographic data for over 25 years to governments, academics, other organizations, and the public. It is funded by the Census Bureau's International Programs.
World Health Organization All countries which are Members of the United Nations may become members of WHO by accepting its Constitution. Other countries may be admitted as members when their application has been approved by a simple majority vote of the World Health Assembly. Territories which are not responsible for the conduct of their international relations may be admitted as Associate Members upon application made on their behalf by the Member or other authority responsible for their international relations. Members of WHO are grouped according to regional distribution (194 Member States).

Development and Economic Information

Trading Economics Information on the GDP, labor, health, prices, currency, trade, and business by country.
AfroBarometer Afrobarometer is a pan-African, non-partisan research network that conducts public attitude surveys on democracy, governance, economic conditions, and related issues in more than 35 countries in Africa.
The Economist Country Reports
OECD.Stat (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) OECD.Stat includes data and metadata for OECD countries and selected non-member economies. OECD.Stat enables users to search for and extract data from across many databases under different themes such as agriculture and fisheries, development, economic projections, education and training, energy, environment, finance, globalisation, health, national accounts, productivity, regional statistics, social and welfare, etc.
OECD Economic Surveys The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development publishes an Economic Survey every two years for Fourty countries, including the BRIICS. It identifies the main economic challenges faced by the country and analyses policy options to meet them.
UN Economic Commission for Africa News, information, many statistics, and many online reports are available free in full-text from this United Nations regional organization. Great source for authoritative online economic information about Africa.
UN Statistical Yearbook The Statistical Yearbook provides in a single volume a comprehensive compilation of internationally available statistics on social and economic conditions and activities, at world, regional and national levels, for an appropriate historical period. It is prepared by the Statistics Division, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, of the United Nations Secretariat.
World Bank The World Bank is a vital source of financial and technical assistance to developing countries around the world...made up of two unique development institutions owned by 185 member countries—the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) and the International Development Association (IDA).

Government and Elections

African Elections Database Older election results (up to 2006) in African countries. List of political parties, coalitions, elections results. Elections held the past year, election calendar, country electoral authorities.
African Elections Project Provides comprehensive election-related information for several African countries, including a blog, from the International Institute for ICT Journalism.
Africa Power and Politics Identifying ways of exercising power and doing politics that work for development... questioning conventional ideas about what ‘good governance’ should mean in the context of sub-Saharan Africa." Funded by the UK Department for International Development and Irish Aid. Posts news and studies.
Africa Research Institute Independent, non-partisan think-tank based in London [that] aims to reflect, understand and build on the dynamism in Africa today. We seek to draw attention to ideas and initiatives that have worked in Africa, and identify new ideas where needed
Constitute Constitute offers access to the world’s constitutions so that users can systematically compare them across a broad set of topics — using an inviting, clean interface.
Northwestern Libraries' List of Foreign Governments Comprehensive list of government organizations for each country. Listed alphabetically.
Stanford Libraries' List of Political Parties Organized by country, this resource identifies and provides links to political parties.

International Relations

Africa Portal The Africa Portal curates a comprehensive collection of research material. Our library holds over 5 000 research reports, occasional papers and policy briefs. The entire repository is open access, equipped with a sophisticated search function and available for free, full-text download.
U.S. Relations Fact Sheet Developed by the State Department, these reports detail U.S. Relations with each country.