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Data Sources
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World Bank /
United Nations / United Nations
Development Programme / The main sources of multi-sector data are the international organizations in the United Nations Family -- the main providers are the World Bank (IBRD), the United Nations (UN) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The World Resources Institute also provides multisectoral data but with an emphasis on the Environment. We have identified two data bases which require the payment of subscriptions and a number of free data bases. The two subscription data bases have a wide selection of social and economic indicators with time series going back at least to 1960. The free data bases have a much more restricted set of indicators and the times series normally go back only a few years. In addition the free data bases generally provide only data on one indicator at a time -- that being said, with a bit of work, it is possible to use the free data bases to develop useful current profiles of most of the countries in the world. World Bank -- The most comprehensive set of multi-sector data is the World Bank's World Development Indicators (WDI) database which is available online and on CD-ROM, but which is unfortunately not free (but it is reasonably inexpensive). The data base has a time series from 1960 to the present for 575 indicators for 208 economies. For more detailed information about the WDI click here. In addition to the WDI the Bank provides a lot of data for free, some of it downloadable, some of it not. For links to free IBRD data click here. United Nations -- The United Nations has two main online multi-sector sites, one charges a fee the other is free. The major data base is the United Nations Common Data Base (UNCDB) with more than 1,100 time series, some of them with time series going back to 1945. This data base is relatively inexpensive. For more details on the UNCDB click here. The free database is the Millennium Indicators Database. These are a series of indicators developed to track the Millennium Development Goals adopted by the UN and the World Bank. There are 48 indicators, some with more than one associated time series. For more information on the database click here. United Nations Development Programme -- UNDP is not a major data provider, however since 1990 they have published the annual Human Development Report with its associated indexes and rankings. This site provides downloads of each of the reports in pdf format plus data tables for the most recent report and a summary table by country for historical records. For more information click here. World Resources Institute -- The WRI provides online data in EarthTrends: The Environmental Information Portal". WRI provides a searchable time-series database with coverage of more than 500 indicators for 220 countries. Topics include Water Resources and Freshwater Ecosystems; Climate and Atmosphere; Population, Health and Human Well-being; Economics, Business and the Environment; Energy and Resources; Biodiversity and Protected Areas; Agriculture and Food; and Forests and Drylands. The searchable database permits searching for a single indicator but over a full range of countries and years. The result can be downloaded into csv format. The system also provides data tables and country profiles in pdf format, maps and feature stories. The database is available at http://earthtrends.wri.org/ . The data is also available in a CDROM for $US 125 . Information on the CDROM is available at http://www.wristore.com/woredacd20.html National Statistical Offices -- For a list of links to the websites of National Statistical Offices and other providers of statistics at the individual country level click here. |
| Copyright ©2004 GRI | Updated 18 November 2003 |