Political Science resources: Facts & data

 Country profiles

CIA World Fact Book
This CIA resource provides access to U.S. government profiles of countries and territories from around the world, including information on geography, people, government, transportation, economy, communications, etc.

Europa World Year Book or [print]
Provides information on a variety of international organizations as well as detailed facts about every country in the world.

Country Studies
Provides access to U.S. Library of Congress studies of the social, economic, political, and national security systems and institutions of countries throughout the world.

Passport
Provides access to demographic and economic data on every country in the world (with forecasts), as well as statistics, market reports, company profiles and information sources for country, market, consumer, and lifestyle profiling.

 Quick facts

CIA World Leaders
This CIA resource provides access to an online directory of Chiefs of State and Cabinet Members of Foreign Governments.

IPU Parline (National parliaments)
This new database from the IPU (Inter-Parliamentary Union) provides access to the structure and working methods of 267 parliamentary chambers in all of the 190 countries where a national legislature exists. The old IPU Parline database is also still accessible but has not been updated since September 2018.

IFES Election Guide
This resource from the IFES (International Foundation for Electoral Systems) provides information about national elections from around the world.

Constitute and CCP website
These resources from the CCP (Comparative Constitution Project) provide access to information, data, and texts of the world's constitutions, charters, amendments, and other related documents.  The former resource contains a richly indexed set of the currently-in-force constitutions for nearly every independent state in the world, as well as some draft and historical texts. The latter includes comprehensive datasets about the world's constitutions.

OECD iLibrary
The OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) iLibrary provides access to OECD publications, including country studies, forecasting publications, reports, periodicals, and socio-economic databases, on topics like developing economies, migration, sustainable development, etc.

 Data

Use the SFU Library's Finding data & statistics / GIS & maps guide for detailed information on Maps, Data, & GIS (Geographic Information Systems) collections and services.

World Development Indicators
Updated annually, this resource contains over 600 development indicators, including economic, social, environmental, business, and technology, with time series for 208 countries.  Choose a country, select the indicators you would like to compare, and export the data or generate a report to view the results.

ICPSR (Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research)
The ICPSR maintains a data archive of more than 500,000 files of research in the social sciences. It hosts 16 specialized collections of data in education, ageing, criminal justice, substance abuse, terrorism, and other fields.

Ipsos News Centre
Polls, public opinion and research information on international topics including politics, technology, health, finance, consumer products and consumer trends.

Ipsos Canadian Public Affairs Dataverse
A repository of over 60 Ipsos Canada surveys that shed light on Canadian culture, politics, and society.

Census Program
These Statistics Canada datasets (collected every 5 years) provide access to a wide range of analysis, data, reference and geographical information about Canada from 1996 - present. Topics may include aboriginal peoples; age and sex; education; labour; population.

Statistics

UNdata
Provides access to a compilation of United Nations and agency statistics, covering economic, social, financial and development topics.

UNCTADstat (Handbook of Statistics)
This UNCTAD (United Nations Conference on Trade and Development) handbook provides access to a comprehensive collection of data relevant for the analysis of world trade, investment and development.

CYB (Canada Year Book)
Published by Statistics Canada, this electronic version of the near annual year book gives a statistical overview of Canadian life, including discussions, graphs, tables and media files. It was discontinued in 2013, but archived, digital and digitized content (1867-1990, 2006-2012) is still accessible.

CANSIM
The Statistics Canada CANSIM (CANadian Socioeconomic Information Management) database provides time series of Canadian data on national accounts, financial institutions, corporate finance, government, population, labour, prices, construction, investment, trade, travel and industry.