LibGuides: Political Science: Find Country Information

Country information & profiles

These sources will give general overviews of a country. Statistics will not be as in-depth as a specialized resource in any given area, but these are good starting points to get a general overview of a country and identify topics to pursue in more depth.

CIA World Factbook The World Factbook provides information on the history, people, government, economy, geography, communications, transportation, military, and transnational issues for 267 world entities.
BBC News Country Profiles Full profiles provide an instant guide to the history, politics, and economic background of countries and territories, and background on key institutions. Choose a country from the drop-down lists.
GlobalEDGE Country Insights Funded in part by the U.S. Department of Education Title VI B grant, globalEDGE delivers a comprehensive research tool for academics, students and businesspeople. Information by country, trading bloc, and industry.
U.S. Department of State: Countries and Areas list This resource from the US DoS primarily focuses on bilateral relations between the selected country and the US, but also has investment and financial information.
World Culture Encyclopedia This online encyclopedia provides articles about the cultures of every country in the world. Entries are accompanied by a bibliography.

Database sources

Statista This link opens in a new window Statistics, reports, and insights on over 80,000 topics from 22,500 sources in 170 industries. Includes Digital Market Outlook, Consumer Market Outlook, Consumer Insights, and Countries & Regions reports. Navigate to "Economy & Politics" via the "Statistics" dropdown to find information relevant to country research.
Mergent Online This link opens in a new window Mergent Online is primarily a source for international companies data, but also includes a "Country Insight" tab that has country risk profiles for several decades with economic and business risk information.
HeinOnline This link opens in a new window
The Hein Online collection "World Constitutions Illustrated" contains original and English language versions of country constitutions and fundamental laws as well as commentaries, histories, and bibliographies of books and articles relevant to the fundamental law any given country.

Country risk analysis

These sources evaluate the risk for business to operate in a particular country, given economic and political factors. They also usually include statistics about the economy and resources.

Mergent Online This link opens in a new window Mergent Online is primarily a source for international companies data, but also includes a "Country Insight" tab that has country risk profiles for several decades with economic and business risk information.

Coface Business Risk Dashboard Coface is a commercial trade credit risk management firm that provides a free Country Risk Assessment. Change the toggle from "Sector Risks" to "Country Risks" to select a country.
AM Best AM Best is the largest credit rating agency specializing in the insurance agency. Country risk is evaluated and factored into all AM Best ratings. As part of evaluating country risk, AM Best identifies the various factors within a country that may directly or indirectly affect an insurance company.
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.Countries are placed into one of five tiers, ranging from Country Risk Tier 1 (CRT-1), denoting a stable environment with the least amount of risk, to Country Risk Tier 5 (CRT-5) for countries that pose the most risk and, therefore, the greatest challenge to an insurer's financial stability, strength and performance.

Locating Government Websites

Many countries publish their own censuses, statistics, and reports online - sometimes even English-language versions. It can be tricky to find the correct place to search, but this box presents some helpful resources to local national government websites.

Northwestern Libraries | List of Foreign Governments This resource created by librarians at Northwestern University provides links to the official websites of national governments. Information on nations not on this list can be found on the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organisation List of Members.

Locating information on national government websites via Google

Search for "[country] government" on Google and identify the country's unique government domain - for example. gov; .gob.mx; .gov.uk; etc.
Use Google's "site:" modifier to restrict search results to only what appears on that government domain: for example

site:gob.mx hydroelectricity

Country-level data & statistics

World Bank Open Data
UN Data
UNDP | Human Development Reports "Global, regional, and country/territory-level data on key dimensions of human development, with interactive insights and publications. The human development data are globally comparable, linked to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and sourced from international data agencies with the mandate, resources, and expertise to collect national data on specific indicators unless otherwise noted."
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) Country Profiles
NATLEX - International Labour Organization "Database of national labour, social security and related human rights legislation. Featuring more than 100,000 full texts or abstracts of legislation, NATLEX invites you to explore its modernized features and contribute to its growth with your inputs."
UNICEF | Data by topic and country
UNODC | Country profiles Crime, drugs, and justice statistics from the UN Office on Drugs and Crime.
Human Rights Watch | Countries
Amnesty International | Countries
Association of Religion Data Archives: National Profiles 'Examine the religious composition, religious freedoms, demographics, constitutional clauses, survey findings and multiple social and political measures for hundreds of nations and dozens of regions. To get started, click on a Nation or Region to see an initial profile. You will then be able to add additional nations and regions as desired. You can also enter text in the Filter box to limit the list of nations and regions."
United States Commission on International Religious Freedom | Countries
Transparency International | Country Perceptions Index
U.S. Energy Information Administration
Statistical Review of World Energy
Global Energy Monitor
Global Registry of Fossil Fuels
Our World In Data
Migration Data Portal: World Map
World Economics and Politics Dataverse