The World Factbook is good for finding information on the history, people, government, economy, geography, communications, transportation, military, and transnational issues for 267 world entities.
Gapminder allows comparison of countries by displaying charts and maps for over 500 indicators (relating to health, income, education, energy, the environment, technology, and more).
Population Reference Bureau is good for finding profiles, charts and maps of U.S. and international demographics. Topics include population, health, and the environment.
UN Data is good for finding a wide range of themes not included in other sources including energy, environment, industry, information and communication technology, national accounts, refugees, tourism, and trade.
Statistics on education, literacy, science and technology, culture and communication of 200 countries. Science and technology section includes data on manpower and expenditures for research and development.
Provides data and trends on the "Population of concern to UNHCR": refugees, asylum-seekers, returned refugees, internally displaced persons (IDPs) protected/assisted by UNHCR, returned IDPs, stateless persons, and others of concern to UNHCR, in more than 180 countries.
UNICEF is good for finding economic and social statistics on the countries and territories of the world, with particular reference to children’s well-being.
WGIs are research data sets that measure quality of governance based on data gathered from a number of survey institutes, think tanks, nongovernmental organizations, international organizations, and private sector firms. Based on nearly 40 data sources produced by over 30 organizations worldwide, the project derives ratings on the quality of governance in over 200 countries.
