Yale University Library Research Guides: Political Science Subject Guide: Country Information

Yale Library International Collections

Country information, analysis, and intelligence

The databases below cover multiple countries and regions. The library also subscribes to many databases that are country- or region-specific. To find them, consult our complete list of databases.

Columbia Gazeteer of the World
Entries include information on many of the following: demography; physical geography; political boundaries; industry, trade, and service activities; agriculture; cultural, historical, and archeological points of interest; transportation lines; longitude, latitude, and elevations; and more. Their length varies from a brief notation on a small village to an essay on a country or region.
SIPRI (Stockholm International Peace Research Institute) Databases
Contains information and data related to conflicts, arms transfers, military expenditures, and states and international organizations.
Political Risk Yearbook
Annual publication of 100 of Political Risk Services' Country Reports, which provide assessment of potential political, financial, and economic risks to business investments and trade.
U.S. State Department Bilateral Relations Fact Sheets
Bilateral Relations Fact Sheets (formerly known as Background Notes) include facts about the land, people, history, government, political conditions, economy, and foreign relations of independent states, some dependencies, and areas of special sovereignty. These fact sheets are updated/revised by the Office of Electronic Information and Publications of the Bureau of Public Affairs as they are received from the U.S. State Department's regional bureaus.
Oxford Constitutions of the World
Contains fully-translated English-language versions of all the world's constitutions (both national and sub-national), accompanied by individual commentaries, supplementary materials, including foundation documents, historical constitutions, and amendment Acts/laws.
CIA World Factbook
Provides information on the history, people, government, economy, geography, communications, transportation, military, and transnational issues for 255 world entities.
BBC News Country Profiles
Guide to history, politics and economic background of countries; included are basic statistics, profiles of governmental leaders, and other relevant data. They also include audio and video clips from the BBC archive.
Varieties of Democracy- V-Dem
Freedom House
Africa Confidential
Bi-monthly digital newspaper covering Africa.

Looking for older statistics and country information?

Many older statistical publications haven't been digitized, but they're a valuable source of historical country information. Yale has many of these print publications from around the world; try searching in Orbis using one of the following strategies.

keyword search: country statistics (e.g., france statistics)
keyword search: country statistics annual (e.g., bolivia statistics annual)
keyword search: country statistics abstract (e.g., nigeria statistics abstract)

Some of these publications change names over time, so check the "Continues" or "Continued by" information at the bottom of the Orbis record. When you've found a statistical publication from your country of interest, you can also use the subject heading(s) in the Orbis record to find additional related publications.

Political Science Subject Guide: Country Information

Yale Library International Collections

Country & regional data

Country information, analysis, and intelligence

Looking for older statistics and country information?

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