Library Guides: PL SC 412: International Political Economy: Statistics and Data

Basic Statistical Sources

U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis
The BEA produces statistics on U.S. gross domestic product, state and local economic data, foreign trade, investment statistics and industry data.

International Sources

World Bank Data Catalog
The Data Catalog provides download access to over 8,000 indicators from World Bank data sets with social and economic indicators in long time series. National level data.
World Databank: from the World Bank
Use this link to construct your own dataset from thousands of variables. Many have long time series.
World Development Indicators
A subset of the World Bank Data Catalogue with the most important indicators.

OECD iLibrary This link opens in a new window
The statistical module of this database includes many of the data sets available from the OECD, including significant data on economic and trade issues. Includes data from the International Energy Agency and is the best place to find development assistance data.
Full-text book and serial publications from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. Also includes many of the data sets available from the organization. Open Access as of 7/1/24.

Creating a data table in OECD
Short video showing how to extract data from the OECD iLibrary

CountryData Online This link opens in a new window
Political, economic, financial, and social data for over 140 countries, in most cases back to 1984. Also included current and historical risk rankings. By the company that produces the Political Risk Yearbook.
CountryData offers political, economic, financial, and social data for over 140 countries, in most cases back to 1984. CountryData is also the only source for current and historical risk ratings developed from the International Country Risk Guide and Political Risk Services rating systems conducted by PRS Group. Note: the tabs International Country Risk Guide (ICRG) and Political Risk Services (PRS) provide access to information regarding methodology, but do not provide access to the actual products. Access to the CountryData and the Political Risk Yearbook are available through the University Libraries A-Z list.

UN Data
UNdata provides data on a wide range of social and economic data series from the UN and its specialized international intergovernmental agencies including POPIN, World Bank, IMF, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNICEF, and WHO. Data can be displayed in HTML or downloaded into Excel or CSV format. Primarily national level data.

Monthly Bulletin of Statistics (MBS) Online (International Statistics) This link opens in a new window
The Monthly Bulletin of Statistics (MBS) includes detailed economic, industrial, trade, and population statistics (monthly or quarterly) from more than 200 countries. Data may be graphed, printed, or downloaded. Compiled by the United Nations.
Economic, industrial, trade, and population statistics (monthly or quarterly) from more than 200 countries. Data may be graphed, printed, or downloaded. Compiled by the United Nations.

IMF Data
Data from a wide range of International Monetary Fund sources covering . Includes direction of trade statistics
INSCRdata
Data from the Center for Systemic Peace the Integrated Network for Societal Conflict Research (INSCR) data sets include time series on armed conflict, state fragility, regime change and several data sets on social conflict in India

China

National Population Census of China Database (NPCC is currently unavailable due to the Chinese regulatory actions. Service will be restored once the regulatory action is completed.) This link opens in a new window
provides access to digitized reports and Excel files of the population census published by China Statistics Press. Currently Penn State has access to data from the 4th (1990), 5th (2000) and 6th (2010) censuses.
The National Population Census of China Database (NPCC) provides access to digitized reports and Excel files of the population census published by China Statistics Press. Currently, Penn State has access to data from the 4th (1990), 5th (2000) and 6th (2010) censuses. Included are key publications from China's Five-Years Plan for Economic and Social Development. This resource includes population data of the whole country, 31 provinces and centrally administered municipalities. Bilingual (Chinese and English) display is provided. You may switch between languages at the top left corner.

Aid and Trade Statistics

Aid Statistics

AidData: Open Data for International Development
Country level research data sets related to development aid
Corruption Perceptions Index
From Transparency International: Global Coalition against Corruption indexes levels of corruption around the world.
IATI Data
Registry of data related to international development aid from over 400 organizations. From the International Aid Transparency Initiative.
USAID Data Resources
How USAID aid is distributed. Part of the Open Data Initiative
USAID Spatial Data Repository
Select Data from The Demographic and Health Surveys and the U.S. Census for single countries, multiple countries, and all countries in GIS format

Trade Data

Trade Statistics are available from a number of print and online publications. Below is a partial list of some places to begin searching for statistics. If you are not locating what you need, please contact the Social Sciences Library for further assistance.

UN Comtrade This link opens in a new window
Comtrade provides commodity trade data for all available countries and areas since 1962.
Comtrade provides detailed import and export statistics in goods and services reported by statistical authorities of close to 200 countries/areas since 1962.

To get access you will need to register with your Penn State access ID email (only an example: abc12@psu.edu). You can also register for unlimited batch, bulk, and API downloads. Getting access to API downloads requires a second registration for an access key. More information can be found in the UN Comtrade user guide.

International Trade Centre (UNCTAD/WTO)
An agency of UNCTAD and WTO. Has statistical data and background information. Use the Market Info and Tools tab to find trade information, and the Countries/Territories tab to find trade profiles a a specific country.
UNCTADstat
The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) maintains a number of statistical databases, including country profiles. Contains Foreign Direct Investment data back to 1970 for most countries.
World Integrated Trade Solution (World Bank)
provides access to international merchandise trade, tariff and non-tariff measures (NTM) data. Browse the Country profile section to obtain countries exports, imports and tariff statistics along with relevant development data.

National Statistical Agencies

Often the best (or only) place to find subnational data is from a country's own statistical office. Some data will only be available in the vernacular, but many website include some data in English

Information on National Statistics Offices
List of links to national statistics office websites

Locate more data

Data Planet This link opens in a new window
Search for data sets and build tables and charts
Online service that enables researchers to build statistical tables and charts from multiple sources in a single interface. Data includes a wide range of social and demographic data both from the US and international sources.
ICPSR (Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research) This link opens in a new window
Data archive with a wide range of social sciences data. Register to download the data using your PSU email ID.
The Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) is a membership-based, non-profit data archive located at the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan. It serves member colleges and universities in the United States and abroad by providing: Access to the world's largest archive of computerized social science data, Training facilities for the study of quantitative social analysis techniques, Resources for social scientists using advanced computer technologies. PSU users get access to ICPSR by creating an individual account using their PSU e-mail ID. This is what identifies them as a PSU affiliate. We do not have IP access. Go to: http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/icpsrweb/ICPSR/index.jsp - See login at top left. Note: occasionally you will need to login using a computer on campus to validate that you are still a PSU affiliate.
Data Citation Index This link opens in a new window
Part of the Web of Science this index articles where data you need has been cited.
The Data Citation Index on the Web of Science™ platform provides a single point of access to quality research data from repositories across disciplines and around the world. Through linked content and summary information, this data is displayed within the broader context of the scholarly research, enabling users to gain perspective that is lost when data sets or repositories are viewed in isolation. These connections allow researchers to efficiently access an array of data across subjects and regions, providing a comprehensive picture of research output, to maximize research efforts and accurately assess importance.