International Business

The UN publishes country population statistics in the Demographic Yearbook. This site offers PDF versions of tables from the current and previous yearbooks.

"Key investment climate indicators for a country with benchmarks against their respective regional and income groups. The set of covered topics includes perceived obstacles, the average firm, corruption, taxes and regulations, access to finance, infrastructure, workforce, crime, informality, innovation, and trade."

Includes assessments by the Heritage Foundation of business freedom, trade freedom, fiscal freedom, government size, monetary freedom, investment freedom, financial freedom, property rights, freedom from corruption, and labor freedom. Note: Some prominent economists, such as Jeffrey Sachs, have criticized the Heritage Foundation's conclusions. Consider the possibility of ideological bias in using this information.

The IDB offers "statistical tables of demographic and socioeconomic data for 227 countries and areas of the world." Also, offers graphs, ranking of countries by population, and ability to download data into spreadsheets.

Yearly assessments by the World Economic Forum of the "competitive condition of economies worldwide." Browse reports, limit to a specific year, or search for specific reports such as Global Competitiveness. Reports are available for download. You can also go to the data platform to generate charts on specific countries or topics.

The Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis (FRED) publishes data on country-related economics. Use GeoFred to create maps from data sets. Or use the International Economic Trends to compare data from different countries.

Esp. useful for projections, the USDA's International Macroeconomic Data Set "provides data from 1969 through 2030 for real (adjusted for inflation) gross domestic product (GDP), population, real exchange rates, and other variables for the 190 countries and 34 regions that are most important for U.S. agricultural trade."

The ITU offers some free statistics on the web, including telephone, cellular, internet, and broadband statistics by country and region. Statistics are more up-to-date than those from most IGO's.

The U.S. International Trade Administration site has data on U.S. merchandise exports, imports, and trade balances. The site is not well organized, so it may take some time to find information.

International statistics on labor and consumer prices from the International Labour Organization (ILO).

These indicators developed by the MSU-CIBER rank “the market potential of 24 countries identified as "Emerging Markets"”, using factors such as market size, growth, consumption capacity, country risk, and more.

"NationMaster compiles statistics from such sources as the CIA World Factbook, United Nations, World Health Organization, World Bank, World Resources Institute, UNESCO, UNICEF and OECD." You can use Nationmaster to display graphs of the statistical information. All statistics/charts include a link to the original source.

The OECD offers numerous statistical tables, databases, and books. Often the statistics cover the 30 OECD countries (USA, Canada, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Korea, Iceland, and many European countries)--but sometimes they include additional countries.
Tip: The OECD Factbook compiles many interesting statistics.

Transparency International does regular surveys to measure levels of corruption in countries. These include the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), Global Corruption Barometer (GCB), and Bribe Payers Index (BPI).

The Commission's site offers full text documents with information on trade, finance, intellectual property issues, r&d, specific industries, energy and environmental issues, media control, and more. The Trade Data & Analyses section offers many charts on trade and industry topics.
See especially annual reports and research sections of site.

Site offers UN statistics by country on demographic topics related to health, education, income, urban/rural mix, etc.

Do keyword searches to find statistics from the United Nations on many topics including "Agriculture, Crime, Education, Employment, Energy, Environment, Health, HIV/AIDS, Human Development, Industry, Information and Communication Technology, National Accounts, Population, Refugees, Tourism, Trade, as well as the Millennium Development Goals Database.

Tables give data for many countries on population demographics, economics, development, investment, the environment, etc.

A Survey by the IMF staff usually published twice a year. It presents analyses of global economic developments during the near and medium term. Chapters give an overview as well as more detailed analysis of the world economy; consider issues affecting industrial countries, developing countries, and economies in transition to market; and address topics of pressing current interest. Annexes, boxes, charts, and an extensive statistical appendix augment the text.etc.), and in many individual countries. It focuses on major economic policy issues as well as on the analysis of economic developments and prospects. The statistical appendix includes data and projections of per capita GDP growth and inflation indicators.

This annual UN report ranks countries based on well-being.

Countries ranked by numerous factors by a London-based think tank which works "to create the pathways from poverty to prosperity, by fostering Open Economies, Inclusive Societies and Empowered People."