Research Guides: Country Information: Country Information Home

Websites: Country Guides

BBC Country Profiles
Country profiles hosted by BBC News.
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Full profiles provide an instant guide to history, politics and economic background of countries and territories, and background on key institutions. They also include audio and video clips from BBC archives.
CIA World Factbook
Country profiles hosted by the CIA.
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The World Factbook provides information on the history, people, government, economy, geography, communications, transportation, military, and transnational issues for 267 world entities. Our Reference tab includes: maps of the major world regions, as well as Flags of the World, a Physical Map of the World, a Political Map of the World, and a Standard Time Zones of the World map.
Department of State (U.S.) Country Information
International Statistical Agenices
Links to countries' statistical agencies. Hosted by the U.S. Census Bureau.
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Tip: If website is in a language other than English, use Google Chrome. This browser will ask if you'd like to translate foreign languages into English.
United Nations and Individual Country Statistical Yearbooks
Click on a country to see what census information they are collecting. Hosted by UW-Madison Libraries.
World Leaders
Directory and profiles of world leaders, hosted by the CIA.
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The CIA publishes and updates the online directory of Chiefs of State and Cabinet Members of Foreign Governments regularly. The directory is intended to be used primarily as a reference aid and includes as many governments of the world as is considered practical, some of them not officially recognized by the United States.

Websites: Country & Regional Analysis

Council on Foreign Relations
Foreign relations and policy information hosted by the CFR.
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The CFR is an independent, nonpartisan membership organization, think tank, and publisher dedicated to being a resource for its members, government officials, business executives, journalists, educators and students, civic and religious leaders, and other interested citizens in order to help them better understand the world and the foreign policy choices facing the United States and other countries.
Freedom House
Freedom ratings by an independent organization.
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Freedom House is an independent watchdog organization dedicated to the expansion of freedom around the world.
InfoPlease Country Profiles
Each profile contains: Geography · Maps · Flag · History · Current ruler · Area · Population · Capital · Largest cities · Languages · Ethnicity/race · Religion · Literacy rate · Economy · Government
Gallup
Public opinion polls.
Pew Research Center - Global Issues
Worldwide numbers, facts, and trends.

Websites: International Resources

Human Rights Report
The annual Country Reports on Human Rights Practices – the Human Rights Reports – cover internationally recognized individual, civil, political, and worker rights, as set forth in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international agreements.
NATLEX
Database of national labour, social security and related human rights legislation. Legislation can be arranged chronologically and by nation.

Attribution

This guide is adapted with permission from the Pasadena City College's Country Information Guide.

Specialized Library Databases

For additional databases for political science research, please visit our Political Science Guide.

Country Watch This link opens in a new window
Provides full text country reviews that include economic, historical, political and social information and analysis, maps (physical, political, and thematic), daily news, political and intelligence coverage, and other special reports from regional newswire services.
Gale eBooks This link opens in a new window
Cross searches the full text of more than one hundred encyclopedias, almanacs, and specialized reference sources covering arts and humanities, biography and genealogy, business, careers, education, literature, history, philosophy, information industry, law, government, medicine and health, multicultural studies, countries, religion, science, social studies, sports, technology, and women’s studies.

News Articles

Newspaper Source Plus This link opens in a new window
Provides cover-to-cover full text for more than 40 (U.S.) & international newspapers as well as selective full text for 389 regional (U.S.) newspapers. Full text television & radio news transcripts are also provided.
US Major Dailies This link opens in a new window
Provides full text access to five major US national and regional newspapers, including The New York Times and Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, and exclusive access to Los Angeles Times and Chicago Tribune. Coverage: 1980 – current.

Videos (see sample videos in the next column)

Films on Demand This link opens in a new window
Includes streaming full-length videos and video clips covering anthropology, area studies, arts and architecture, biology, business and economics, careers and job search, communication, computers and technology, criminal justice, earth science, education, English and language arts, environmental science, family and consumer sciences, geography, guidance and counseling, health and medicine, history, mathematics, music and dance, philosophy and religion, physical science, political science, psychology, sociology, technical education, and world languages.
World History In Video This link opens in a new window
Collection of documentaries that explore human history from the earliest civilizations to the late twentieth century covering Africa and the Americas, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and Oceania.

Search Tips

Tip 1: Use keywords to help narrow down your search and find relevant information more quickly.

[Your country] AND [keyword or words]

For example:

El Salvador AND elections
Chile AND health care
Turkey AND economy
Afghanistan AND foreign policy
India AND globalization

Tip 2: Use "Ctrl+F" (Windows) or "Command+F" (Mac) to quickly search webpages and documents.

News & Media Sources

Tip: Use the search boxes on these sites to find news & video related to your chosen country.

Al Jazeera Video
Video segments hosted by Al Jazeera English.
BBC Monitoring
Follows the state of international media outlets.
BBC World News
The latest international news from the BBC World Newsroom.
CNN Video
Video segments hosted by CNN.
World News in English
Links to English language newspaper from around the world.
Worldwide Directory of Newspapers
Links to international, national and regional newspapers online (from Headlinespot.com)

Video Databases

Below are two sample videos from the database, Films on Demand. More videos are available under the subject "Global Politics."

Country Information: Country Information Home

Country Information Research Guide -- Find information on Countries and their Governments