As of 22 April 2009 IFLA has a totally redesigned new website

This old website and all of its content will stay on as archive – http://archive.ifla.org

Statistics on the internet come in a variety of formats. Some organizations will provide pre-formatted statistical tables in HTML or PDF format that can be printed out. Other sites allow users to generate tables on demand or to download data sets for use with other computer programs. Sites below with the symbol  allow the user to generate statistical tables on demand. Sites marked with the symbol allow users to download data in various formats. Generally the formats are easily imported into commonly available spread sheet or database programs. Sites that combine both these features are marked with .

Locator Sites
1. OFFSTATS: Official Statistics on the Web:   http://www.auckland.ac.nz/lbr/stats/offstats/OFFSTATSmain.htm -- from the University of Auckland Library, has a country and subject guide to official sources of social and economic statistics.
2. National Statistical Agencies:   http://www.libraries.psu.edu/crsweb/docs/statnats.htm
3. Altaplana: International Economics Gateway, Resourses and Data Archives:   http://altaplana.com/Gate.resource.html
4. Statistical Data Locators:   http://www.ntu.edu.sg/library/stat/statdata.htm --from Nanyang Technological University, Library. Emphasis is on Singapore but has broad coverage of other countries.
5. Australian National University, WWW Virtual Library of Population and Demographics:  http://demography.anu.edu.au/VirtualLibrary/ -- has a long list of data servers.

Basic Statistical Compendia

By Region

1.  Statistical Yearbook for Latin America and the Caribbean  (CEPAL)
2. Asia & Pacific in Figures (ESCAP)
3. Trends in Europe and North America (ECE)
4. Economic Report on Africa (ECA)
5. ESCWA
   
• Development Survey 1997-1998   http://www.escwa.org.lb/escwa/region/survey/1997-1998/index.html
• Socio-Economic Indicators for the ESCWA Region, 1995-1997  http://www.escwa.org.lb/escwa/region/indicators/index.html

General Demographics

1. InfoNation:  http://www.un.org/Pubs/CyberSchoolBus/infonation/e_infonation.htm Geographic, social, population, and economic statistics from the UN
2. World Population Estimates and Projections to 2050:    http://usda.mannlib.cornell.edu/data-sets/general/95010/ -- Annual populations and growth rates are provided for 227 countries from the U.S, Dept. of Agriculture
3. Social Indicators (UN):   http://www.un.org/Depts/unsd/social/
4. UN Demographic Yearbook: Capital cities and cities of 100,000 and more inhabitants:   http://www.un.org/Depts/unsd/demog/index.html

  Agriculture/Food Supply

1. Africa Data Dissemination Service    http://edcintl.cr.usgs.gov/adds/adds.html -- the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Famine Early Warning System Network
2. FAO Stat:  http://apps.fao.org/   agricultural production and trade, nutrition, fisheries, and forestry data for the Food and Agriculture Organization
3. World Agriculture: Trends and Indicators, 1961-91:   http://usda.mannlib.cornell.edu/data-sets/international/89024/ -- historical data from the US Dept. of Agriculture.
4. Data Products: International Agriculture:   http://www.ers.usda.gov/Data/ -- For a broad range of data sets on world agriculture from the US Dept. of Agriculture click on A-Z Topics/International Agriculture.
5. State of Food Insecurity in the World 2000   http://www.fao.org/FOCUS/E/SOFI00/sofi001-e.htm -- from the FAO

  Children

1. UNICEF Statistics:   http://www.unicef.org/statis/index.html
2. State of the World's Children, 2001:   http://www.unicef.org/sowc01/

  Crime

1. Statistics and Research Sources, from the UN Crime and Justice Information Network:   -- a "locator site" specifically for crime and justice statistics. http://www.uncjin.org/Statistics/statistics.html
2. United Nations International Study on Firearm Regulation:   http://www.uncjin.org/Statistics/firearms/index.htm

  Development

1. Joint BIS-IMF-OECD-World Bank statistics on external debt   http://www.oecd.org/dac/debt/
2. Development Data:   http://www.worldbank.org/data/ -- from the World Bank.  Includes a Data Query feature with selected data form the World Development Indicators data set.
3. International Bond Issuances from Developing Countries   http://www.worldbank.org/prospects/capitalflows/bondtabs.htm -- World Bank
4. Social Indicators:   http://www.un.org/Depts/unsd/social/ from the UN
5. World Development Reports:  http://www.worldbank.org/wdr/index.htm
6. Progress of Nations, 2000:   http://www.unicef.org/pon00/

  Economics

1. Commodity Price Data    http://www.worldbank.org/prospects/pinksheets/index.htm   -- the World Bank "Pinksheets"
2. Global Development Finance 2000:  http://www.worldbank.org/prospects/gdf2000/
3. Global Economic Prospects, 2000:  http://www.worldbank.org/prospects/gep2000/full.htm
4. Handbook of International Economic Statistics: nbsp http://www.odci.gov/cia/di/products/hies/index.html
5. Penn World Tables:   http://datacentre2.chass.utoronto.ca/pwt/ Economic data from the University of Toronto, long time series 1950-1991/92 but no current data.
6. World Economic Situtation and Prospects for 1999:   http://www.un.org/esa/analysis/wesp99.pdf -- United Nations 
7. World Investment Report: Country Fact Sheets  http://www.unctad.org/en/pub/ps4wir00fs.en.htm

  Education

1. Unesco Instiute for Statistics:  http://unescostat.unesco.org/en/stats/stats0.htm    from the International Bureau of Education
2. U.S. National Center for Education Statistics, International Comparisons  http://nces.ed.gov/surveys/SurveyGroups.asp?Group=06
3. OECD EDucation Database  http://www.oecd.org/scripts/cde/viewdb.asp?DBNAME=EDU_UOE&DBICON=%2Ficons%2Foecd%2Egif

  Energy

1. Nuclear Power Plant Information:  http://www.iaea.org/programmes/a2/-- from the IAEA's Power Reactor Information System (PRIS)
2. International Energy:  http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/international/contents.html -- from the US Energy Information Agency
3. Selected Statistics from the International Energy Agency (OECD):  http://www.iea.org/statist/index.htm

  Environment/Natural Resources

1. State of the Global Environment Reports    http://www.unep.org/SGE/-- -- from UNEP.  Includes National reports.
2. World Resources Report 2000-2001:     http://www.wri.org/wri/wr2000/index.html -- From the World Resources Institute
3. World Meteorological Organization
• WMO-DDBs Climate Data Sets  http://www.wmo.ch/web/ddbs/clmdata.html 
• Global Climate System Monitoring products   http://www.wmo.ch/web/wcp/wcdmp/csm/html/accesscsmprod.html

  Health

1. WHOSIS:     http://www.who.int/whosis/ --A "locator site" for health and health related information and statistics from the WHO. Includes statistics and downloadable data.
2. World Health Report:    http://www.who.int/whr/

 Labour
 

1. OECD Labor Market Statistics  http://www.itcilo.it/english/actrav/telearn/global/ilo/seura/mains.htm

Trade Data

1. World Trade Organization: Trade Statistics   http://www.wto.org/english/res_e/statis_e/statis_e.htm
2. UNCTAD-TRAINS (TRade Analysis and INformation System)  http://www.unctad.org/trains/index.htm
3. Interamerican Development Bank    http://www.iadb.org -- -- this is a good example of the data provided by development banks. For links to additional development banks see the Multi-National Organizations page.

Women

1. World Abortion Policies 1999  http://www.un.org/esa/population/publications/abt/abttoc.htm
2. WomenWatch: Statistics & Indicators  http://www.un.org/womenwatch/resources/stats.htm