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International Government Data & Statistics: Social & Humanitarian

Human Trafficking and Slavery

Global Slavery Index. Estimates the number of people living in slavery in modern countries, from the Walk Free Foundation. 

Global Report on Trafficking in Persons.  From the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.

Trafficking in Persons Report.  From the U.S Dept of State.  Country profiles from 2001.

Social Security and Social Protection

European Union

IMF Social Spending Data.  Trends in health and education spending in countries with and without Fund-supported programs during 1980 and 2009. 

International Labour Organization

International Social Security Association. Profiles on social security programs across countries and data tables for countries in Africa and Asia & the Pacific.

Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean

World Bank ASPIRE (Atlas of Social Protection Indicators of Resilience and Equity).

World Bank Pensions Data. Cross-country data for mandatory pension systems around the world - part of the World Bank HDNSP pensions database.

United Nations Development Programme Indicators. Includes a number of social indicators and famous indexes such as the Human Development Index (HDI). 

Humanitarian Aid

The following data sources are for humanitarian crises (e.g. natural disasters, famine, war).  Other sources of development aid can be found in other sections of this guide.

Global Humanitarian Assistance. Data on humanitarian financing and aid flow resources to meet the needs of people living in humanitarian crises.

Humanitarian Data Exchange (HDX). From the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. 

Humanitarian Outcomes. Data from an Independent group providing evidence-based analysis and policy consultation to governments and international organizations on humanitarian response efforts.

United Nations Refugees Statistical Data. Data, reports, maps and other information on refugees, asylum-seekers, returned refugees, the internally displaced and stateless people.

United Nations Peacekeeping Statistics. Fact sheets, troop and police numbers, fatalities, and gender data for UN Peacekeeping operations.

World Food Programme Food Aid Information System. Comprehensive data on food aid flows by weight and nutrition value from the WFP.

Societal Values

Public Opinion Barometers

Among other things regional and global public opinion polls (barometers) measure societal attitudes values. In some cases these are raw data files and require statistical software.

  • Afrobarometer​.Series of national public attitude surveys on democracy, markets and civil society in Africa.
  • Arab Barometer. Ressearch project with data on the political attitudes in the Middle East and North Africa.
  • Asian Barometer (Data not publicly available - apply by country).
  • Caucusus Barometer. Network of research, resource and training centers working on social science research and public policy analysis in the South Caucasus.
  • Eurobarometer. From ICPSR (over 187 studies). See also Eurostat online query.   
  • Global Barometer. Largest comparative survey of world attitudes and values.  
  • Latinobarómetro. Annual public opinion surveys for 18 Latin American countries.

International Social Surveys

The US General Social Survey is widely known but there are other regional  & national surveys measuring public opinion on values.

World Database of Happiness.  Research findings on subjective enjoyment of life that brings together findings scattered throughout many studies.

World Values Survey. National surveys conducted in almost 100 countries. Largest non-commercial, cross-national, time series investigation of human beliefs and values.