Research Guides: Urban Planning & Public Policy: International Information & Data

International Information & Data

* Indicates UCI Access Only

AccessUN*
Indexes United Nations official records, masthead documents, sales publications and periodicals. Provides the full text of UN resolutions and selected meeting records and documents.
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To find UN books, limit search to document type: "Sales Publication." To find UN periodicals, limit search to document type: "Periodical." Consult ANTPAC for UCI holdings. UCI Libraries have the accompanying Readex UN Microfiche Collection. Coverage: 1966 - present. For the arrangement and scope of the UCI Library’s United Nations resources see: United Nations: A Reference Guide.
GATT Digital Library: 1947-1994*
This site provides access to documents and information of and about the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), an organization that promoted international commerce and the reduction of trade barriers among member states from 1947-1994.
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Over 30,000 documents are archived here.
OECD iLibrary*
Indexes and abstracts and provides full text access to OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation & Development) books and periodicals.
Coverage: 1998 - present
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Among the areas of concern to the Organisation of Economic Development (OECD) are: agriculture, development, education, emerging economies, economics, employment, energy, environment & sustainable development, finance, governance, trade, science & information technology, social issues/migration/health, taxation, and transportation.
World Bank e-Library*
An online, fully cross-searchable portal of over 3,000 World Bank documents. The collection consists of over 1,400 World Bank publications and over 2,000 Policy Research Working Papers.
WDI Online (World Development Indicators)*
Demographic Yearbook
Call number: HA 17 D45 Latest Langson Library Reference Desk Coverage: 1948 - present
International Governmental Organizations (Northwestern University)
Site provides an alphabetical linked list of IGOs.
Global Economic Prospects and the Developing Countries
Call number: HC 59.69 G58 Latest: Langson Library Reference
Coverage: 1991 - present
UNBISnet
Primary index to United Nations documentation. Organized into three sections:
(1) bibliographic; (2) voting records; and (3) index to speeches.
UNESCO Creative Cities Network
Promotes social, economic & cultural development of cities in both the developed & developing world. The cities which apply to the network seek to promote their local creative scene; they share interest in UNESCO’s mission towards cultural diversity.
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Currently designations are for Literature, Gastronomy, Media Arts, Film, Music, Crafts & Folk Art and Design.
Asia Soft Power Survey
(2008) from The Chicago Council on Global Affairs and East Asia Institute (South Korea)
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A ranking of United States, Japan, China and South Korea's soft power in Asia. Soft power is defined as the ability to wield influence by indirect, nonmilitary means, whether by persuasion or attraction. The results are derived from surveys taken in the United States, China, Japan, South Korea, Indonesia and Vietnam. The "Soft Power Index" is an average of the indexes to the five components of soft power: economic, cultural, human capital, diplomatic, and political.
Economist Intelligence Unit's Democracy Index
2006
2008
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Ranks 165 countries and 2 territories based on five categories: electoral process and pluralism; civil liberties; the functioning of government; political participation; and political culture.
Failed States Index
(2005- ) from The Fund for Peace and Foreign Policy Magazine.
Assess the stability and political risk of 177 countries by focusing on 12 social, economic and political indicators.
Global Peace Index
(2007, 2008) from Vision of Humanity
Ranks the countries of the world by their peacefulness using 24 indicators.
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The Vision of Humanity warns against year-on-year comparisons due to the expansion of the GPI from 121 countries to 140. In its methodology it states: "The normalisation of a number of our series for our index also makes direct year-on-year comparisons difficult as the normalised series essentially measure countries in direct reference to their respective differences for that given time period (maximums and minimums will differ between the 2007 GPI measurements and 2008). Nevertheless, we have developed a special comparative version of the Global Peace Index in 2008 for the original 121 countries. The comparison excludes new 2008 countries."
Open Budget Index
Assigns a score to each country based on the information the government makes available to the public throughout the budget process. Based on a biennial survey of people in academic institutions and civil society organizat
State Fragility Index
The State Fragility Index covers 162 independent countries and is derived by combining scores measuring two qualities of state performance: effectiveness and legitimacy on the dimensions of security, governance, economics, and social development.
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(from Polity IV) (1995, 2001, 2007) from Center for International Development and Conflict Management (CIDCM)
Worldwide Governance Indicators
Indicators of six dimensions of governance for 213 countries: voice and accountability, political stability and absence of violence, government effectiveness, regulatory quality, rule of law, and control of corruption.
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(1996- ) from The World Bank
Europa World Plus Database
Covers the following regions of the world: Far East & Australasia, Africa South of the Sahara, Central & Southeastern Europe, Eastern Europe, Russia & Central Asia, Middle East & North Africa, South America, Central America & the Caribbean, South Asia, North America & Canada, Western Europe with individual country analysis & comparative statistics
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Covers historical, political, economic and demographic background and a current synopsis of the health of the country.
Global Health Observatory
This is the entry point to the World Health Organization's database of 1,000 indicators in more than 194 countries. Data is organized to track progress of health-related sustainable development goals.
Global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Indicators Global Database
This database is managed by the UN Statistics Division and allows views by indicator, by country, or by area that can be downloaded to Excel or CSV format. The UN Environment Programme Knowledge Repository contains maps for SDG synergies, region, or theme and is described below.
African Centre for Statistics
The UN Economic Commission for Africa has established this Centre for member states seeking original data to inform policy decisions. The African Centre for Statistics is intended to serve as a regional data hub for economic, social ,demographic, and environmental conditions in African countries.
Country Data
From the UN Statistics Division, national and international data is available here to track development progress at the country level.
European Countries
The Statistical Database of the Economic Commission for Europe (ECE) country profiles for ECE member countries, including population, migration, economy, transport, and forestry.
Geospatial Information
This portal is maintained by the UN Initiative on Global Geospatial Information Management. The country section showcases best practices and case studies to illustrate the successful use of geospatial information. The portal also provides key references and documents on National Spatial Data Infrastructures.
Latin America
The ECLAC Digital Repository is maintained by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean. A section for Data & Statistics contains La Comision Economica para America Latina's CEPALSTAT, the gateway to all the statistical information of Latin America and the Caribbean countries collected, systematized, and published by ECLAC.
OECD.stat.
managed by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), this site allows users to browse by topic or country. It includes data and metadata for OECD countries and selected nonmember economies.
World Bank Open Data
World DataBank is an analysis and visualization tool that contains collections of time-series data that users can view by indicators, countries, or regions.
Demographic and Social Statistics
This is the main page of the UN Statistical Division, where users can search by demographic and social topics (population size and density, family formation, violence against women, etc). This site links to databases and publications covering demographics, housing, and women and gender issues.
Gender Equality
View specifics about the minimum set of gender indicators, including qualitative and quantitative indicators relating to health, education, public life, and human rights of women and children.
Human Development Reports
Made available from the UN Development Programme, these include Human Development Data from 1980 to 2015, the Human Development Index, and Google's Public Data Explorer.
International Migration
This site from the Population Division of DESA contains international migration flow datasets and migration profiles from 2011 to 2015.
Environmental Data Explorer
This is the authoritative source for datasets used by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Global Environment Outlook partners. The database contains more than 500 different variables as national, regional, and global statistics or as geospatial datasets (maps), covering such themes as fresh water, population, forests, emissions, climate, disasters, health, and GDP. This site allows users to create maps, graphs, or data tables, or to download the data in different formats.
Global Environment
The UNEP Knowledge Repository is a resource for global environmental issues, including climate change, disasters and conflicts, ecosystem management, environmental governance, chemicals and waste, and resource efficiency. There is not a data section, but a search for "dataset" within this site links to more than 7,000 sources for data, including Gender-Environment Datasets with Broadest Country Coverage, which is available at http://web.unep.org/ggeo/resources/data-sources. This repository contains maps for Sustainable Development Goal synergies, region, or theme.
Global Gender and Environment
The Global Gender and Environment Outlook is a collaborative project between UNEP and strategic partners to bring gender issues to the heart of environmental assessment and decision making. To date, 17 indicators pull from available UN data, separated by gender, on environment and sustainable development issues.
AQUASTAT
This is Food and Agriculture Organization's (FAO) global water information system, developed by the Land and Water Division. The most quoted source on global water statistics, this portal includes maps, summary and spatial tables, and datasets.
CountrySTAT
This is an open source platform for food and agriculture statistics, including national and subnational levels. The goal of this platform is to act as a portal for statistics from member states. A useful e-learning course is available for CountrySTAT to upgrade statistical and technical skills of member states to improve data collection, quality and storage of food, and agricultural data.
FAOSTAT
This is the repository for production, trade, and emissions data related to agriculture and land use for the Statistics Division of the FAO. Data includes emissions for agriculture and land use, food security, population, trade, and production.
UN's RefWorld Database
Can search country news, profiles, reports and maps plus lots of content and reports issued by different UN agencies & offices. Many resources including case law.
UNHCR Population Statistics Database
This database maintained by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) shows data about populations of concern from 1951 to 2014 and allows users to view general composition by location of residence or origin, status (refugees, asylum seekers, internally displaced persons, etc) and evolution.
UN Human Development Index
Allows experts ti keep up (through 2015, at present) with data relevant to health, education, and standard of living, and to compare a country of expertise with most others in the world.
UNICEF
The United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) houses data including child mortality, health and nutrition, maternal health, water and sanitation, education, child migration and displacement, child protection , and HIV/AIDS. User can view statistics by topic or country.
World Health
WHOSIS is the World Health Organization's Statistical Information System that has been incorporated into the Global Health Observatory to provide researchers with more data, tools, analysis, and reports.
Drugs and Crime
The UN Office On Drugs and Crime has a Statistics division that provides drug indicator data, including use and health consequences, production, and trafficking. It also provides such criminal justice statistics as crime, homicide, and special reports.