When researching international statistics it is helpful to know what kind of statistics you need and what organizations collect that data. For a single country (or city data) check their statistical abstract. When comparing multiple countries, it is best to get all similar data from the same source. Use the PDF's table to determine who collects the type of data you need.

Most international organizations and databases generally provide only country level data.  A few good web sites for reliable links to statistical sources include the sites on this page.  Most city data has to come from official government websites of the city or country, or from statistical abstracts and handbooks of the individual country. City Population is a good starting point for research, but is limited to population data.

These selected sources of  international data are subscriptions that the ULS pays for.  As a result we can select variables, then construct and extract the data sets.  Most data is annual data collected by international organizations, although a few sources have quarterly, monthly  or more frequent data.

Most city data (statistics) has to come from offical government websites of the city or country or from statistical abstracts and handbooks of the individual country. Most international organizations and databases generally provide only country level data.  Encyclopedias like the Encyclopedia Britannica Online are useful for descriptions of cities and their statistics.

These are selected sources for international data.

These are selected sources for international data. Also see the box of Country Information Databases we subscribe to.