Below is a listing of some of the many international and US organizations included in Data Planet that collect and disseminate statistical data relevant to global issues. Use the Browse by Source option in Data Planet to review the datasets available from these organizations.
World Bank Founded in 1944 as a result of the Bretton Woods Conference, the World Bank is an independent specialized agency of the United Nations that provides financial and technical assistance to developing countries in order to foster economic growth and reduce poverty.
International Monetary Fund Headquartered in Washington, DC, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) was conceived at a United Nations conference convened in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, United States, in July 1944. The Fund’s mandate has recently been clarified and updated to cover the full range of macroeconomic and financial sector issues that bear on global stability. The IMF is a specialized agency of the United Nations but has its own charter, governing structure, and finances. Its members are represented through a quota system broadly based on their relative size in the global economy.
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Established in 1961, when 18 European countries plus the United States and Canada joined together to create an organization dedicated to global development, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) today includes 34 member countries from around the globe, ranging from North and South America to Europe and the Asia-Pacific region. Member countries include many of the world’s advanced countries as well as emerging nations. The OECD collects and analyzes data on a broad range of topics to help governments foster prosperity and fight poverty through economic growth and financial stability, at the same time taking the environmental implications of economic and social development into account.
Eurostat Eurostat is the statistical office of the European Union (EU) located in Luxembourg. Eurostat was established in 1953 to meet the requirements of the Coal and Steel Community. Over the years its task has broadened, and it became a Directorate-General (DG) of the European Commission when the European Community was founded in 1958. Eurostat’s key role is to supply comparable statistics on European Union member state and candidate and European Free Trade Association countries to other DGs and supply the Commission and other European Institutions with data so they can define, implement, and analyze EU policies.
United Nations The United Nations (UN) was founded in 1945 after WWII by 51 countries committed to maintaining international peace and security, developing friendly relations among nations, and promoting social progress, better living standards, and human rights. The UN has 4 main purposes: to keep peace throughout the world; to develop friendly relations among nations; to help nations work together to improve the lives of poor people, to conquer hunger, disease and illiteracy, and to encourage respect for each other’s rights and freedoms; and to be a center for harmonizing the actions of nations to achieve these goals.
China Data Institute, University of Michigan China Data Institute is a nonprofit organization for China data development, applications, consulting and training. One of its primary goals is to promote international partnerships for China data development and applications. Its missions are: to support research in the human and natural components of local, regional and global change; to promote quantitative research on China; to promote collaborative research in spatial studies; and to promote the use and sharing of China data in teaching and research. The institute is partnering with All China Marketing Research Co., Ltd., as well as other organizations in distributing China statistical data and publications internationally.
The World Bank provides broad and open access to a comprehensive set of internationally comparable national-level data on development and conditions of people’s lives in nations around the world, as an aid to policymakers and researchers.
The links provided here a small subsample of the over 1,000 indicators covering 213 economies in the World Development Indicators (WDI) database. Data include indicators of education, environment, economic, financial, infrastructure, health, labor and social protection, poverty, private sector and trade, and public sector development of the world's nations.
Sample education-related indicators:
This DataSheet compares the trend in Adjusted net enrollment rate of males and females (as % of primary school age children) in Ecuador
This DataSheet presents a heat map of nations based on secondary education duration
This DataSheet provides a trend of the ratio of female to male tertiary enrollment.
Here we compare the trend in the literacy rate of adults in four former Soviet Socialist republics.
Other indicators in the WDI relate to socioeconomic conditions. Explore possible relationships among education and other statistics.
Economic Policy and Debt - Shows the current account balance of Bangladesh as percentage of GDP.
Environment - Presents a heat map of the world's nations by the percentage of the population living in urban areas of over one million population.
Financial Sector - Compares ratio of bank assets to capital in four Scandinavian nations.
Private Sector and Trade - Presents a ranking of nations by food exports as a percentage of all merchandise exports.
Public Sector - Shows a heat map of the world's nations by military expenditures as % of GDP.
To identify datasets of interest, use the the left-hand navigation of the Data Planet Statistical Datasets interface to browse datasets by subject, source, or geographic entity of interest:
Use Search to locate datasets of interest. The example below uses quotes to search for the exact-word phrase "primary education":
The view of search results identifies sources of interest in the filters on the left:
Clicking on a search result takes you directly into the indicator - here a ranking of spending on pre-primary and primary education from the International Monetary Fund's Government Finance Statistics database:
Create trends and charts to explore statistics of interest by and across nations. For example, the chart below compares the percentage of the population attaining doctoral-level or equivalent education across 15 nations.
For more information on searching Data Planet Statistical Datasets, click here.