Understanding the differences in political, economic, and legal systems of the countries in the world is essential in the practice of international business as they determine benefits, costs and risks of doing business in a country. The resources included on this page offer political, economic, social and cultural information on all countries, much of it sourced from the U.S. government and international organizations. We have also included indexes and rankings by various organizations that allow country comparisons on a wide range of criteria. The subscription databases are available to onsite patrons only, but check with your institution or local libraries to see if they subscribe to them.
The following titles link to fuller bibliographic information in the Library of Congress Online Catalog. Links to additional online content are included when available.
These are links to resources form U.S. government agencies that provide a wide range of country information from basic facts to overviews of business and economic environment.
The following international organizations offer statistical data and information resources on economic development and cooperation, financial and trade relations of the countries of the world. Look in the Research and Publications sections of the websites for analytical reports, surveys and other products. You might also want to search by organization name in the Library's catalog or article databases to find their content, as not all of them have resource-rich websites.
These indexes and rankings allow comparisons between countries on various important aspects of economic and social development.
The subscription resources marked with a padlock are available to researchers on-site at the Library of Congress. If you are unable to visit the Library, you may be able to access these resources through your local public or academic library.
OECD iLibrary is the gateway to OECDs analysis and data. Contains all the publications and datasets released by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, International Energy Agency (IEA), Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA), OECD Development Centre, PISA (Programme for International Student Assessement), and International Transport Forum (ITF) since 1998. Arranged under 19 thematic areas covering issues in agriculture and food, development, economics, education, employment, energy, environment, finance and investment, governance, industry and services, nuclear energy, science and technology, social issues, taxation, trade, transport, and urban, rural and regional development. Types of OECD publications include ebooks, papers, statistics, factbook and glossaries.
NOTE: To access SourceOECD Books, Papers, Statistics, Factbook, or Glossaries, please click on the appropriate tab.
Listed below are the research guides on business and economics for specific countries or regions from Business Reference Services. There are numerous country studies guides with in-depth information from other divisions of the Library of Congress—see the subject list of guides to identify them. For information on country legal systems see the Guide to Law Online: Nations of the World from the Law Library of Congress.