Library guides: Economics: Statistics

Where to start searching for data

Don't know where to start? Think about your topic. Which national or international organisation is likely to have collated and published statistics on that topic? Go to their website and check which datasets are available.

Something that you have to bear in mind when searching for data is that the most recent statistics on a particular topic may be several years old, or they don't go as far back as you expected.

Key data sources

Euromonitor Passport
Industry trends, strategic analysis, market size and market share data across key countries and industries. Includes demographic and economic data and packaging information.
Accessibility statement for Euromonitor Passport
Registration instructions: Business School students should register for an account via Business Library Moodle 2024-2025. Non-Business School students and staff should email businesslibrary@city.ac.uk for registration instructions.
User guide
OECD Health Statistics
Provided by Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), this resource contains statistical data on health around the world including health status, healthcare quality indicators, health workforce migration and more.
Accessibility statement for OECD Health Statistics
OECD iLibrary
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's (OECD) online library of statistical data, books, and journals. It focuses on economics, business, education, employment, energy, development, and environment.
Accessibility statement for OECD iLibrary
Statista
Provides access to recent and relevant statistics & studies on a specific topic.
Accessibility statement for Statista
Statista combines statistical data on international industries from different sources including market researchers, trade organizations, scientific journals, and government databases. It aggregates statistical data on over 600 international industries and from more than 18,000 sources.
UK Data Archive
Curator of the largest collection of digital data in the social sciences and humanities in the UK. A resource for researchers, teachers and learners with several thousand datasets relating to society, both historical and contemporary.
Accessibility statement for UK Data Archive
The first time you login you will be required to complete a short registration form.

Freely available Data sources

You can search for statistics in the following resources:

Bank for International Settlements
The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) international financial statistics are compiled in cooperation with central banks and other national authorities.
Federal Reserve Economic Data
FRED® is a database of over 20,000 U.S. economic time series (1,000 macro series and 19,000 regional series). With FRED®, you can download data in Microsoft Excel and text formats and view charts of data series
IMF datasets
Via ESDS you can acces IMF International Financial Statistics; IMF Government Finance Statistics; IMF Direction of Trade Statistics, and IMF Balance of Payment Statistics.
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You can access the World Economic Outlook databases and other IMF data. Not all datases are freely available. You can access additional IMF datasets via ESDS.
NationMaster
NationMaster compiles statistics from such sources as the CIA World Factbook, United Nations, World Health Organization, World Bank, World Resources Institute, UNESCO, UNICEF and OECD. To find the original source refer to the 'Source' heading at the bottom of the graph.
Principal Global Indicators
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The PGI dataset provides internationally comparable data for the Group of 20 economies (G-20) and the five members of the Financial Stability Board that are not part of the G-20 to facilitate the monitoring of economic and financial developments for these jurisdictions. Launched in 2009 in response to the global financial crisis, the PGI website is hosted by the IMF. It is a joint undertaking of the Inter-Agency Group on Economic and Financial Statistics (IAG). It provides information on major economic indicators that is available at participating international agencies covering financial, governmental, external, and real sector data, with links to data available at websites of international and national agencies.
UNCTAD statistics
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UnctadStat is the statistical database of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, and include data on international trade and foreign investment
UNdata
World Bank Open Data
Open access to Global Development data
World development indicators
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The primary World Bank collection of development indicators, compiled from officially-recognized international sources. It presents the most current and accurate global development data available, and includes national, regional and global estimates.
WTO International Trade and Tariff data
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Interactive access to the most up-to-date World Trade Organization (WTO) trade statistics

Free data sources for UK

Bank of England
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The Bank compiles and publishes a range of monetary and financial statistics. These include domestic banking statistics, external finance statistics and international banking statistics. The Bank also publishes an Inflation Attitudes Survey - a national poll undertaken by NOP, UK Yield Curve data and other financial market series
Office for National Statistics
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Official website of the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
You can browse everything that the ONS produces by theme. You can also view our publications, datasets and tables in isolation.