Sources
Start with a question you care about, such as food prices, health, energy, or trade. A CSV is a plain-text table. Excel is a spreadsheet file. Check who publishes the data, how often it is updated, what the licence allows, and how you download the file.
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Prompt
Find a public data source for [your question] in [country names] during [years]. I need a free CSV or Excel download. Name the publisher, link to the original source, and explain the update frequency, licence, and download steps. Say whether an account or key is needed. If you cannot check a link, say so. Do not invent a dataset.The reply names a publisher, gives a link, and lists the steps to download the file.
Open that link and confirm you can reach a download.
Browse the sources
A portal is a website where you pick the data and download it. An API is a way for a program to request data. The Key line reads none, free sign-up, or paid. For this course, download a file or use a portal.
60 sources
The list is collapsed. Select a group to see its sources, or search.
Trade (9)
- UN Comtrade Merchandise and services trade by reporter, partner, and product.
- WITS Tariffs, non-tariff measures, and bilateral trade in one query tool.
- WTO Stats Official merchandise trade, services trade, and trade-policy indicators.
- UNCTADstat Trade, investment, shipping, and commodity series from UNCTAD.
- CEPII BACI Reconciled bilateral goods trade at the product level.
- WTO Tariff and Trade Data Applied and bound tariffs plus bilateral trade for WTO members.
- USITC DataWeb US merchandise imports, exports, and tariffs by product and partner.
- Global Trade Alert Government measures that help or hurt foreign commercial interests.
- Atlas of Economic Complexity What each country exports, and how complex those products are.
Macro and finance (8)
- IMF Data Portal Cross-country macro series, including WEO, prices, and payments.
- OECD Data Explorer Comparable indicators for the economy, society, education, and trade.
- BIS Cross-border banking, credit, debt securities, and exchange rates.
- Penn World Table Comparable GDP, prices, and productivity for growth research.
- Maddison Project Historical GDP per capita for very long-run comparisons.
- Eurostat Official European Union economic, social, and trade statistics.
- ECB Data Portal Euro area monetary, financial, and balance-of-payments series.
- World Inequality Database Income and wealth inequality within and across countries.
Energy and commodities (8)
- Energy Institute Statistical Review Annual production, consumption, and trade for the world energy system.
- IEA Free energy balances, prices, and emissions extracts from the IEA.
- EIA International International energy production, consumption, trade, and prices.
- JODI Monthly oil supply and demand as reported by countries.
- IRENASTAT Renewable capacity, generation, and balances by country.
- Ember Electricity generation, power-sector emissions, and coal trends.
- World Bank Commodity Markets Monthly world prices for energy, metals, and agricultural goods.
- OPEC Annual Statistical Bulletin Oil and gas reserves, production, trade, and prices from OPEC.
Health and life sciences (11)
- WHO GHO Country health indicators, from mortality to health systems.
- IHME GBD Causes of death and disability by country, age, and year.
- ClinicalTrials.gov Registry of clinical studies, conditions, interventions, and results.
- NCBI GenBank Public nucleotide sequences and their annotations.
- UniProt Protein sequences and functional annotation.
- GBIF Species occurrence records from museums, surveys, and citizens.
- ChEMBL Bioactivity of drug-like molecules against biological targets.
- RCSB PDB Experimentally determined 3D structures of biological molecules.
- DHS Program Household surveys on health, fertility, and nutrition.
- UNICEF Data Child survival, nutrition, education, and protection indicators.
- UN Population Data Portal Population estimates and projections by age and sex.
Development and governance (11)
- World Bank WDI The standard cross-country set of development indicators.
- Our World in Data Research charts and downloadable long-run series on global issues.
- Gapminder Simplified country time series for teaching development trends.
- V-Dem Country-year measures of democracy and its components.
- Worldwide Governance Indicators Perception-based scores for six dimensions of governance.
- ILOSTAT Employment, wages, informality, and working conditions by country.
- FAOSTAT Agriculture, food supply, prices, and land use by country.
- UNDP Human Development Data Human development index and the tables behind it.
- UN SDG Data Portal Official country series for the Sustainable Development Goals.
- UCDP Organized violence events, fatalities, and conflict dyads.
- UNESCO UIS Education, literacy, and science statistics by country.
ASEAN and Asia (13)
- ASEANstats Comparable ASEAN trade, population, and macroeconomic indicators.
- ADB Key Indicators Macro, social, and SDG indicators for Asian and Pacific economies.
- SingStat Singapore official time series, from GDP to the labour market.
- BPS Indonesia Indonesia national accounts, prices, trade, and social statistics.
- PSA Philippines Philippines national accounts, prices, trade, and census tables.
- DOSM Malaysia Malaysia official statistics as open tables and charts.
- NSO Thailand Thailand population, labour, prices, and household statistics.
- GSO Vietnam Vietnam output, prices, trade, and investment statistics.
- e-Stat Japan Japan official statistics on the economy, population, and society.
- KOSIS Korea official statistics on the economy, population, and society.
- eSankhyiki India India national accounts, prices, labour, and social statistics.
- Hong Kong C&SD Hong Kong trade, prices, national accounts, and population.
- NBS China China official statistical releases and yearbook tables in English.
Next: get the data.