So, you have found yourself in a situation where you need information on a country — something other than the United States. It could be that you need the GDP or the % of the population receiving an education or any other of a number of facts you might need. Where do you look for this? Here are a few places that you might want to check into. Some are databases that we subscribe to through the library and others are websites that are free to all.
CountryWatch – CountryWatch is a great database that provides country-specific intelligence on a number of countries. This might be in the form of data or it might be the relevant news item that covers events taking place in a country. It covers everything from history and human rights to environmental issues as well as a nice section for a social overview of the country of interest.
IMF eLibrary – The IMF eLibrary provides access to IMF publications and data. You will find a link in the library’s databases for the IMF which will take you to their homepage. By looking under either “Data and Statistics” or “Publications”, you will see the IMF eLibrary. Here you will find financial and trade-related information and data for numerous countries.
GeoHive – GeoHive provides access to an amazing amount of data on countries. Data covers general population information (density, growth, gender), population age information, general information about population, economic information (GDP, imports/exports) and agricultural statistics. There are also sections on countries (more country info) and cities (info on megacities). GeoHive is found at www.geohive.com
Passport GMID – Passport GMID provides marketing information for countries. Searchers can select industries or consumers and view information based on a geographic location. If you are looking for information on consumer trends for a country, this would be a good place to look.
World DataBank – This resource is provided through the World Bank (databank.worldbank.org) and covers many of the basic statistics for a country (GDP, GINI, life expectancy, poverty, etc.).
Global Road Warrior – The Global Road Warrior is great because it covers many of the important areas of a country. Here you will learn about everything from the country’s climate to education to what kind of electrical sockets they have to music to health & medical issues to business etiquette and everything in between. If you are going to travel, look here.
Data Planet – Data Planet is nice because it provides access to many of the data sources such as the World Bank, IMF, China Data Center, EuroStat, Penn World Tables, the OECD as well as some really interesting things such as the Millennium Development Goals and Digital Agenda for Europe. A truly awesome resource!
The CIA World Factbook – Another great resource that has alot of information on countries — people, geography, economy, energy, transportaion, etc. A nice concise presentation of facts about a country. Look for it at https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/
So, these are just a few of the places that will provide information about a country. There are others that have specific information such as ease of doing business, for instance. For more places to look, go to the MBA/EMBA research guide on the library homepage and look under the “Countries” tab or under the “Statistics” tab for more resources for country information.