Country Information
 

Print and online resources are available.  Major sources include Europa World Year Book available online, the Political Risk Yearbook, 6 volumes [Pius Ref. Desk D410 .P6*], and the CIA World Factbook [Gov Docs Ref. PrEx 3.15:].  Search the  Saint Louis Universtiy Libraries Catalog  by subject, using the name of the country.  For example, France--Description and Travel.   See also Maps & Gazeteers in Selected Web Sites.

CIA World Fact Book      http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook/index.html Contains basic information by country such as geography (location, area, etc.), people (population, birth rate, death rate, literacy, etc.), economy (gdp, inflation rate, labor force, unemployment, etc.), government, communications, military, and transportation.

Country Commercial Guides - Archives      http://www.state.gov/www/about_state/business/com_guides/index.html Prepared by U.S. embassies' staff assisted by U.S. government agencies, these reports focus on a country's commercial environment (1996-2001). For current guides, see STAT-USA.

Country Profiles      http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/country_profiles/default.stm BBC News provides information about the history, politics, media, and background information for countries divided by geographic area.  It also provides links to audio and video clips from the Archives of the BBC.

Country Reports on Economic Policy and Trade Practices      http://www.state.gov/e/eeb/rls/rpts/eptp/ Modeled on the Department of State annual Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, the reports were intended to provide a single, comparative analysis of the economic policies and trade practices of countries with which the United States at the time had significant economic or trade relationships. Only 1993 through 2001 are available as they are no longer being prepared.

Country Reports on Human Rights      http://www.state.gov/g/drl/hr/c1470.htm The reports cover internationally recognized individual, civil, political, and worker rights, as set forth in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.  They are provided each year to Congress by the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor of the U.S. Department of State.

Europa: The EU at a Glance: European Countries      http://europa.eu.int/abc/governments/index_en.htm Describes main governmental links available for each of the 27 EU member states.

Independent States in the World      http://www.state.gov/s/inr/rls/4250.htm Another resource from the U.S. Department of State, this site lists the countries of the world, gives the capital of each with pronunciation and indicates whether or not it has diplomatic relations with the U.S. and is a United Nations member.

Library of Congress Country Studies      http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/cshome.html Access to electronic versions of volumes in the Area Handbook series [SuDocs D 101.22:550] published 1988-98.  These handbooks were prepared by the "Federal Research Division of the Library of Congress under the Country Studies/Area Handbook Program sponsored by the Department of the Army" and generally covered lesser know countries or areas.  Funding was lost in the late 1990s for continued updating and expansion of this series.  Therefore, these works serve as a source of much valuable historical information. See Country Profiles for more up-to-date, but briefer information.

National Geographic Map Machine      http://plasma.nationalgeographic.com/mapmachine/index.html Provides maps for the world, continents, countries and states of the United States.  Information accompanying country maps include, the flag, area, population, capital, literacy rate, religion, life expectancy, and economy.  This information is taken from various 1995 and 1996 sources.

Portals to the World      http://www.loc.gov/rr/international/portals.html Links to electronic resources selected by Library of Congress subject experts.  When complete this site will contain links to information from many categories to all nations in the world.

STAT-USA      http://www.slu.edu/libraries/pius/databases/dbdesc/statusa.html Includes the National Trade Data Bank which has Market Research Reports and Country Commercial Guides by country in addition to other trade and economic information. Subscription resource available in-library only.

World Development Indicators (WDI) 2007      http://www.worldbank.org/data/wdi2007/wditext/index2.htm From the World Bank, this provides a limited amount of freely available data by topic (People, Environment, Economy, and States and Markets) and country.

Last updated December 9, 2007.