| Free Data |
One of the major
selling points of ... The
Hitchhiker's Guide the the Galaxy .. is its compendious and
occasionally
accurate glossery. The statistics relating to the geo-social
nature
of the Universe, for instance, are deftly set out between pages nine
hundred
and thirty-eight thousand three hundred and twenty-four and nine
hundred
and thirty-eight thousand three hundred and twenty-six.
The Restaurant at the end
of the Universe, Douglas Adams, Harmony Books.
click here to return to
main
page
|
Public domain data from the US Government |
Generally
data
from
the
US
Government
are
public
domain
and
free for
anyone to use without the need for permission.
| Multi-data or Regional data sites |
These sites list political, economic,
demographic data and other
types.
Society at a glance http://www.oecd.org/els/social/indicators/SAG
various data for OECD countries.
| Demographic data |
The sites listed here are mainly
demography sites, but have other
data as well.
Population Reference
Bureau http://www.prb.org/
Click
on
the
World Population Data Sheet, or the data
finder page http://www.prb.org/datafinder.aspx
for some basic demographic data on world countries.
Unicef infant and child mortality
data http://www.childinfo.org/mortality.html
data tables on mortality for infants and for children under 5.
These
tables have data for many countries, and have data for 1960, 70, 80, 90
and 2000.
| Economic data |
The sites listed
here are sites mainly
about
economic data, but have other data as well.
Penn World Tables
http://pwt.econ.upenn.edu/
"The
Penn
World
Table
displays
a
set
of
national
accounts economic time
series covering many countries. Its expenditure entries are denominated
in a common set of prices in a common currency so that real
quantity
comparisons can be made, both between countries and over time. It also
provides information about relative prices within and between
countries,
as well as demographic data and capital stock estimates." The
Penn
World Tables currently comprise data for 150 countries and 30 subjects,
including population, real GDP, consumption share of GDP, investment
share
of GDP, real GDP per adult, a Standard of Living Index (Consumption
plus
government consumption minus military expenditure, % of
GDP).
The data can be downloaded at the site above, and there are papers
available.
A new version is expected soon.
Groningen Growth and
Development Centre http://www.ggdc.net/
"The Groningen Growth and Development Centre is a research group of
economists
and economic historians at the Economics Department of the University
of
Groningen. The group carries out research on comparative analysis of
levels
of economic performance and differences in growth rates in the world
economy."
They have a number of data bases available for free including these: Total
Economy
Database
with timeseries for GDP in constant 1990 and 1999 prices, Employment,
Population
and Working Hours for at most 75 countries. Series for GDP per Capita,
GDP per person employed and GDP per hour worked are also
available.Series
run from 1950-2002 for OECD countries and from 1950-2000 for other
countries.
60-industry
database: series on value added in current and constant prices,
employment
and value added per person engaged for at most 60-industries covering
the
economy for 16 countries. Series run from 1990 onwards. 10-sector
database:
consists of series on real GDP in national currencies, employment and,
in some cases, annual working hours by broad sector of the economy for
about 20 countries across North America, Europe, Asia and Latin America
from 1950 onwards. ICOP industry Database: provides estimates
of
comparative productivity levels by industry, which are compiled within
the framework of the International Comparisons of Output and
Productivity
project. We now provide annual series from 1950-2000 for manufacturing.
The ICOP Database presently covers approximately 30 countries. They
also
publish working papers.
Economic Growth
Resources http://www.bris.ac.uk/Depts/Economics/Growth/
"These pages are designed as a resource for researchers studying
economic
growth". See the data page http://www.bris.ac.uk/Depts/Economics/Growth/datasets.htm
with
links
to
various
data
sets.
ECONOMIC FREEDOM OF THE WORLD Annual
Report by the Fraser
Institute.
http://www.fraserinstitute.org/
The
report
can
be
found
at
http://www.fraserinstitute.org/programsandinitiatives/economicfreedom.htm
The
summary
index
is
based
on
23
components
designed
to identify the
consistency of institutional arrangements and policies with economic
freedom in seven major areas, including size of govt, structure of
markets, freedom to trade with foreigners, and other... See
the freetheworld book page http://www.freetheworld.com/book.html
that
also
lists
the
current
report,
and
earlier
reports,
and research
generated from the economic freedom of the world.
The data are also here http://www.freetheworld.com/datasets_efw.html
INTERSTATE
STATISTICAL COMMITTEE OF THE
COMMONWEALTH
OF INDEPENDENT STATES. http://www.cisstat.com/
see the Main Macroeconomic Indicators page http://www.cisstat.com/eng/macro0.htm
The
pages
for
individual
countries
have
annual
data
from
1995 to 2002
on
indicators such as GDP, CPI, Capital Investments, and so on.
Professor Jeffrey G.
Williamson's
papers
on the web http://www.economics.harvard.edu/faculty/williamson/jwilliamworkingpapers
see
especially
his
sets
of
data:
Real Wages and Relative
Factor
Prices in the Third World 1820-1940. Includes data for
Mediterranean, Asia, Latin America.
International Trade
Data http://pss.la.psu.edu/TRD_DATA.htm
"This
data
set
is
version
1.1
of
Katherine
Barbieri's
national and
dyadic
trade data, which covers the period 1870-1992." This data set
contains
total and bivariate trade data for Correlates of War countries.
The world economy
statistics http://www.theworldeconomy.org/statistics.htm
This
book
is
from
Angus
Maddion,
at
the
OEDC.
Very interesting
data,
including very long term data. For example, Table 1-3 Level
and
Rate of Growth of GDP: World and Major Regions, 0-1998 A.D., and Figure
1-4
Comparative
Levels
of
GDP
Per
capita:
China
and
West Europe,
400-1998
A.D These are samples from the book.
INDEX OF
ECONOMIC FREEDOM http://www.heritage.org/index/
measures the level of freedom and prospects for growth in our global
economy.
The Index is a practical reference guide to the economies of 161
countries.
This site links to the book. You can see the rankings of the countries,
including rankings
from 1995 through current.
Can also find it here http://www.heritage.org/index/Default.aspx
Includes data in both urls.
McKEEVER INSTITUTE OF ECONOMIC POLICY
ANALYSIS http://www.mkeever.com/welcome.html
inlcudes
ratings
of
economic
policies
of
about
27
countries.
Specifically,
the
ratings look at whether the policies facilitates or obstruct wealth
creation.
ILO labor statistics
data http://laborsta.ilo.org
includes
"Yearly
statistics
of
Employment,
Unemployment,
Hours
of
Work,
Wages,
Labour Cost, Consumer Price Indices, Occupational Injuries,
Strikes
and Lockouts" 1969 to current. Also, "Monthly statistics of
Employment,
Unemployment,
Hours of Work, Wages, Consumer Price Indices. 1976 to current.
Completeness
of data for yearly and monthly varies by country, for example, some
countries
only have data for 1990 to present, some earlier.
World bank http://go.worldbank.org/8HKVHK4HP0
(very
long
url) has a table showing income distribution. The table is labeled WDI
2007 poverty. The years of the data vary from 1993 to 2005.
It is not clear that use of
worldbank data is
free.
In my contact with them, some people who responded to my questions
indicate
they generally charge for data use, but in some cases data can be used
for free. They allowed us to use some of their data for free in our
reports, which are
posted for anyone to view without charge.
Luxembourg Income Study
site http://www.lisproject.org/
especially
see
the
LIS
key
figures,
"Summary
measures
for
all datasets
in the LIS archive are reported." such as income
inequality,
relative poverty rates, poverty rates for children. These tables
are free. The actual data is free to academic researchers in
member
countries, and to students world wide.
Global Competitiveness Report http://www.weforum.org/en/initiatives/gcp/Global%20Competitiveness%20Report/index.htm
ranking countries. "The Global Competitiveness Report is a
contribution to enhancing our understanding of the key factors which
determine economic growth, and explain why some countries are so much
more successful than others in raising income levels and opportunities
for their respective populations, and in joining the upper ranks of
international competitiveness."
Inequality Project http://utip.gov.utexas.edu/
has a data page. UTIP is a small research group concerned with
measuring and explaining movements of inequality in wages and earnings
and patterns of industrial change around the world."
UNCTAD World Investment Report http://www.unctad.org/Templates/Page.asp?intItemID=1465
includes data sets such as Inward FDI Stock as a
Percentage of
Gross Domestic Product, and many others.
World Income Inequality Database
http://www.wider.unu.edu/research/Database/en_GB/database/
"Developed
over
the
period
1997-99,
the
World
Income
Inequality
Database
(WIID) provides information on income inequalities at both
cross-country and time series levels. It presents data on changes in
income inequality over the period 1950-98, with a particular focus on
the period since 1980 for 149 countries." From the United Nations
University.
Some problem loading this page, but another version is
here http://www.siuc.edu/~fsolt/swiid/swiid.html
| Political data |
The Comparative
Study of Electoral Systems
(CSES)
http://www.cses.org/
"collaborative
program
of
cross-national
research
among
election
studies
conducted
in
over
fifty consolidated and emerging democracies. The
goals
of this unique program of research are threefold: illuminate how
electoral
institutions constrain the beliefs and behaviors of citizens to
condition
the nature and quality of democratic choice as expressed through
popular
elections; understand the nature of political and social cleavages and
alignments; and shed light on how citizens, living under diverse
political
arrangements, evaluate democratic institutions and processes."
They
can look at "satisfaction with the performance of democracy: how do
citizens
respond to varying institutional forms of democracy?"
Freedom house
http://www.freedomhouse.org/template.cfm?page=1
especially see their country ratings page, which is "an annual
assessment
of state state of freedom by assigning each country and territory the
status
of "Free," "Partly Free," or "Not Free" by averaging their political
rights
and civil liberties ratings.
This data is available as html, excel and pdf, for 1972/73 to the
current year.
Kansas Event Data
System (KEDS) http://web.ku.edu/~keds/data.html
"The Kansas Event Data System uses automated coding of English-language
news reports to generate political event data. These data are
used
in statistical early warning models to predict political change."
As I understand it, this is data about dyadic interacations between
pairs
of countries. The interactions could be diplomatic (e.g.,
denounce),
or military (e.g., mobilize, or force), or economic.
The Polyarchy Scale
http://www.nd.edu:80/~mcoppedg/crd/datacrd.htm
This
is
a
scale
"measuring
thresholds
of
polyarchy
in
every independent
state in the world as of mid-1985." Also has updated data for
2000.
Developed by Michael Coppedge. The scale ranges from "Meaningful
fair elections are held, there is full freedom for political
organization
and expression, and there is no preferential presentation of official
views
in the media." to "No meaningful elections are held, all organizations
are banned or controlled by the government or official party, all
public
dissent is suppressed, and there is no public alternative to official
information."
Polity IV Project
http://www.cidcm.umd.edu/polity/
"This
Web
site
contains
information
on
and
access
to
the most recent
update
of the well-known and highly respected Polity data series, originally
designed
by Ted Robert Gurr. Polity IV contains coded annual information on
regime
and authority characteristics for all independent states (with greater
than 500,000 total population) in the global state system and covers
the
years 1800-2002." Some variables include general openness of
political
institutions, and polity durability based on the number of years since
the last regime transition or since 1900. Look at other data on
the Center for International Development and Conflict Management
(CIDCM) at http://www.cidcm.umd.edu/
Sachs and Warner
http://www.bris.ac.uk/Depts/Economics/Growth/sachs.htm
this
data
set
includes
some
economic
data
such
as
per capita gdp
growth,
purchasing power, but also the degree to which an economy is rated as
'open'
and 'institutional quality index' which is political stability,
corruption,
a few other criteria. The Sachs and Warner data set is also
available
at http://www.cid.harvard.edu/ciddata/ciddata.html
SIPRI database on military
expenditure http://www.sipri.org/databases
especially read the sources and methods carefully.
World bank governance
indicators http://www.worldbank.org/wbi/governance/govdata/
data on corruption and other governance indicators.
This data set is also listed at the World Bank Research Data Sets
described above. The variables in this data set are: Voice and
Accountability, Political Stability and Absence of Violence, Government
Effectiveness, Regulatory Quality, Rule of Law, and Control of
Corruption.
Failed States
Index here
"It assesses violent internal conflicts and measures the impact
of
mitigating strategies." Started in 2005. This is from
the Fund for Peace http://www.fundforpeace.org/web/
They
also
have
explanations
of
why
each
state
got
their score. The
Index is in the publications.
| Social data |
WORLD DATABASE OF HAPPINESS http://www1.eur.nl/fsw/happiness/
This is "an ongoing register of scientific research on subjective
appreciation
of life. It brings together findings that are scattered throughout many
studies and provides a basis for meta-analytical studies." The
data
are available as an spss file from the author. Also, click on Finding Reports and then Rank reports of Happiness in Nations.
This
leads
to a table showing a list of countries and their average
happiness. You can also go to
Happiness in Nations, then Search Findings by Item Type and some of the questions
have data for a large number of counries.
Unesco statistics
about education Indicators
and data bases of education. http://www.uis.unesco.org/
click
"literacy"
then
"statistical
tables".
Requires
Java.
Barro-Lee education data set http://www.cid.harvard.edu/ciddata/ciddata.html
"International Data on Educational Attainment: Updates and
Implications" with dataset prepared in Feb 2000.
UN Refugee agency http://www.unhcr.ch/
a ton of international refugee data, including current and some trend
statistics.
Click on refugee statistics, then there are a number of reports
available.
The annual reports are in pdf.
Ethnic, linguistic and religious fractionalization http://www.anderson.ucla.edu/faculty_pages/romain.wacziarg/papersum.html fractionalization data available here, as well as a paper, by Romain Wacziarg and others. Fractionalization is presented for three factors: ethnic, linguistic and region. Data for each country varies from 1983 (e.g. Angola) to 1998 (e.g., Austria), but seems only for one year for each country. Overall, there is high correlation between ethnicity and language (0.63) but low correlation between language and religion (0.24) and between religion and ethnicity (0.14). That is, ethnicity and language seem tied together, but religion seems independent.
Ethnolinguistic
Fractionalization (ELF)
Indices
for 1961 and 1985 http://weber.ucsd.edu/~proeder/data.htm
Dr.
Roeder
writes
that
"A
common
interpretation
of
the
index is that it
is the probability that two individuals chosen at random from the
population
(country) will be from different ethnic groups." There is high
correlation
between Roeder's ELF and Wacziarg et al's ethnic (0.79) and language
(0.75)
fractionalization, but low between ELF and religious (0.33)
fractionalization.
The Press Freedom Survey http://www.freedomhouse.org/template.cfm?page=16
from the freedom house. Annual survey from 1994 so far through
2007, but .
Quality of Life http://www.economist.com/media/pdf/QUALITY_OF_LIFE.pdf
Quality of life data for 2005, includes data.
The data are also in this file http://gsociology.icaap.org/data/PD_useful.xls
available
on
my
data
sets
page.
Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index http://www.weforum.org/en/initiatives/gcp/TravelandTourismReport/index.htm
from
World
Economic
Forum
Social Statistics http://www.postyour.info/
A
kind
of
social
survey
for
anyone.
They
post
some questions (and
you can suggest some), people answer, then you can either get some
statistics on line or download the data set.
| Crime data |
| Misc data |
Democide http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/
murder
by
governments.
Environmental Sustainability Index http://www.yale.edu/esi/
According
to
the
site,
"The
Environmental
Sustainability
Index
(ESI)
is
a measure of overall progress towards environmental sustainability,
developed
for 142 countries. The ESI scores are based upon a set of 20 core
"indicators,"
each of which combines two to eight variables for a total of 68
underlying
variables. The ESI permits cross-national comparisons of environmental
progress in a systematic and quantitative fashion. It represents a
first
step towards a more analytically driven approach to environmental
decisionmaking."
Romania Factbook 2004
http://www.factbook.net/
includes bunch of different data about Romania, but also a variety of
different
reports on world data, for example, ESTIMATING GLOBAL ROAD FATALITIES http://www.factbook.net/EGRF_Exec_Summary.htm
including
charts
and
data,
and
An
analysis
of
the
World Muslim
population
by Country / Region http://www.factbook.net/muslim_pop.php
also
showing
charts
and
a
table.
(The home page doesn't say anything about data, it's real
estate or something.)
Axel Dreher has an index of globalization, and another on corruption http://www.uni-goettingen.de/en/89555.html According to the abstract for the paper Does Globalization Affect Growth, "The paper presents an index of globalization covering its three main dimensions: economic integration, social integration, and political integration." The data uses panel data for 123 countries in 1975 through current. The data set is now here http://globalization.kof.ethz.ch/ . "The index measures the three main dimensions of globalization: economic, social, and political. In addition to three indices measuring these dimensions, we calculate an overall index of globalization and sub-indices referring to actual economic flows, economic restrictions, data on personal contact, data on information flows, and data on cultural proximity."
The CSGR Globalisation Index http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/csgr/index/
"measures
the
economic,
social
and
political
dimensions
of
globalisation
for
countries on an annual basis over the period 1982 to
2004, and combines these into an overall globalisation index, or score."
Internet World Stats, http://www.internetworldstats.com/
An International website featuring worldwide up to date Internet
Usage Statistics and 2007 Population Data for over 233 countries and
world regions. Their world table http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm
shows
world
data,
2006,
and
they
have
more
detailed
data by
region.
| Sites that list other data sites |
BLS link to other official data sites http://www.bls.gov/bls/other.htm
UN links to other official data sites http://unstats.un.org/unsd/methods/inter-natlinks/sd_natstat.htm
Official Statistics of the world http://www.library.auckland.ac.nz/subjects/stats/offstats/Key Starting Points for Statistics http://www.rba.co.uk/sources/stats.htm
Data
on
all
sorts
of
topics.
Some
are
free
but many are not. But this
lists so many varies sources its worth looking at.
Development Data http://www.developmentdata.org/
Data
on
topics
related
to
development.
Guide to freely available international data resources http://www.esds.ac.uk/International/access/guide.asp from ESDS international
The Macro Data Guide http://www.nsd.uib.no/macrodataguide/index.html
has
some
comments
about
the
data
quality
This Open Directory page http://www.dmoz.org/Society/Government/Multilateral/Regional/
also lists various regional organizations, many of which have data.
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