Country Information & Directories

Web Sites

• BBC News: Country Profiles
  Short country profiles provide an instant guide to history, politics and economic background of countries. They also include audio and video clips from the BBC archives and some links to relevant websites.
• The CIA World Factbook
  Statistical and general country information arranged alphabetically by region and country
• The Columbia Gazetteer of North America
  An offering of Bartleby.com, The Columbia Gazetteer (2000) is a comprehensive encyclopedia of geographical places and features with 50,000 entries. It covers every incorporated place and county in the United States, along with several thousand unincorporated places, special-purpose sites, and physical features, as well as Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean.
• Export.gov: Market Research
  To access the Country and Industry Market Reports (including the Country Commercial Guides) you must be a U.S. Company or a Student/Researcher and be registered with Export.Gov.
  The Country Commercial Guides (CCG) are prepared by US Embassy Staff once a year and contain information on the business and economic situation of foreign countries and the political climate as it affects U.S. business.
• Infonation
  An easy-to-use, two-step UN database that allows you to view and compare the most up-to-date statistical data for the Member States of the United Nations.
• iLoveLanguages
  Formerly "The Human-Languages Page".
  a comprehensive catalog of language-related Internet resources. Here you will find online language lessons, translating dictionaries, programs to aid you in learning a language, and more.
• Information Please World Almanac: Countries of the World
  Information about each country, including a map and flag.
• Library of Congress: Global Gateway
  Given that approximately two-thirds of the books and periodicals in the Library of Congress collections are in languages other than English, it makes sense that its website highlights both its international collection and collects Internet resources by region.
  • Country Studies Area Handbooks
    A continuing series of books 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. This series presently contains studies of 71 countries. Very in-depth studies.
  • Portals to the World
    "Portals to the World contain selective links providing authoritative, in-depth information about the nations and other areas of the world. They are arranged by country or area with the links for each sorted into a wide range of broad categories. The links were selected by Area Specialists and other Library staff using Library of Congress selection criteria. When completed, the project will include all the nations of the world."
• NationalAtlas.gov
  The National Atlas of the United States of America from the United States Geological Survey.
• National Geographic: World Music
  Explore and listen to music from around the world
• NationMaster
  Created by Rapid Intelligence, a web technology company based in Sydney, Australia, NationMaster is a website that allows users to generate graphs based on numerical data extracted from the CIA Factbook and other statistical databases. All statistics on this site are cited (view the "Source:" field, found below each graph or click the "View with citations" link below the bottom of the page).
• Nations Online
  Links to major websites in every country of the world, including the national government and major newspapers and universities.
• US Department of State Background Notes
  The background notes for each country in the world contains brief information on geography, people, history, political conditions, economy, government, foreign relations, US relations, travel & business, and links to further electronic resources from the US government.
• US Department of State: Countries and Regions
  Click on the region to get to information about countries.
• Washington Post World Search
  Use the Washington Post database to find news, reference materials and Web resources for more than 220 countries. Search the country name or browse a complete country list.
• WWW Virtual Library: International Affairs Resources
  over 2600 annotated links in a range of international affairs topics, compiled and maintained by Wayne A.Selcher, Professor of International Studies, Department of Political Science, Elizabethtown College, Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania.