Information Services and Library: Research for Alumni: Researching country and economic data

Library databases for country and economic data

Business Source Alumni Edition
Business Source Alumni Edition, offers access to Country reports from a variety of publishers including Country Watch, MarketLine and the PRS Group. To access this content easily, keyword search on the name of the country you are looking for information on and then limit your search to publication type: Country Report.
Availability: Global
MarketLine Advantage (Alumni)
Use the Country Statistics database to access macroeconomic and socio-economic time-series data for a large number of countries.
To access this content, once in MarketLine select Databases>Country Statistics. There is also a City Statistics database.
You can also use MarkeLine to access their Country Analysis Reports (a selection of these are also available on the Business Source Alumni Edition database). For some countries they offer a PEST analysis for others it is a PESTLE Analysis.
Availability: Campus only
Mergent Online (Alumni)
Mergent contains a lot of economic time-series data that can be easily downloaded into Excel. It has data for Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Japan, UK and US. The data availability varies from country to country. To see what's available select the Economics tab at the top of the first Mergent Screen. Country Insight reports are also available.
Availability: Global
Proquest ABI/INFORM (Alumni)
Proquest contains a number of publications and data sources that can be useful when looking for economic data. These include the EIU's Country Data and EIU Views Wire (both can be accessed from within Proquest, or directly from your A-Z list of library databases). Proquest also includes Oxford Analytica's Country Profiles and Economic and Industry Forecasts from Oxford Economics.
To access this content more easily in Proquest, once in the database select browse>country reports.
Availability: global

Free web resources

CIA World Factbook	Provides 267 country profiles covering history, people, government, economy, geography, communications, transportation, military, and transnational issues. It includes flags, maps and country comparisons.
IMF - Country data	Links to reports, news, transcripts relevant to the country chosen
UNCTAD	Useful statistics including: economic trends, FDI, external financial resources, population and labour force, commodities, the information economy, the creative economy, and maritime transport.
OECD Country surveys	For OECD country economic surveys. Or use the data tables in their data explorer.
World Competitiveness Center	From IMD who produced five rankings with accompanying reports in 2024: The IMD World Competitiveness Ranking The IMD World Digital Competitiveness Ranking The IMD World Talent Ranking The Hinrich-IMD Sustainable Trade Index (STI) The IMD Smart City Index
The World Bank	Provides development data (World Development Indicators: WDI) and surveys/research for countries and regions. Can view by country, topic or indicator and the statistics can be downloaded.
BBC Country Profiles	The BBC offers country profiles that include audio and video clips.
Country statistics	Many statistics are freely available on the web you may also choose to consult the country's own statistical office. This list of statistical offices of the world has been produced by the U.N.