Economic Data freely available online

Here are some links that you may find useful for accessing statistics and other information. Datasets that require you to pay or register are on a separate page along with pointers. (Note that some free datasets that require registration are also listed below.)

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If you print out this page, the URLs will appear alongside each individual link.

A. UK data sites

The following sites are the main ones for accessing free data (mainly macroeconomic) on the UK economy. The sites also contain some international data.

1. Office for National Statistics

The ONS is the UK’s recognised national statistical institute and is the largest independent producer of official statistics for the country. It is responsible for collecting and publishing statistics related to the UK economy, population and society at national, regional and local levels. It also conducts the census in England and Wales every 10 years.

The website includes 58,000+ time series published in over 600 releases a year that can be used to make customisable charts and datasets.

Home Page

On the Home Page you can find the following:

At the top you can access data and publications under 5 broad categories (Business, industry and trade; Economy; Employment and labour market; People, population and community and Taking part in a survey?) and 32 subcategories (e.g. Inflation and price indices and National accounts under Economy).

On the Home Page, you can also see the latest headline news, figures and publications.

Also on the Home page and throughout the site is a search box. This enables you to search by keyword for any topic and the results will be organised by 'Publications', 'Data' and 'Other'. You can also apply filters. So, under the 'Data' category, you can filter by 'Time series', 'Datasets' or 'User requested data'.

Data can be downloaded as an Excel or CSV file. Statistical bulletins can be accessed on line or downloaded as a PDF file, with particular graphs or tables downloaded as an Excel or CSV file.

The search box also allows you to access a particular time series by its unique 4-digit identifier. Thus if you wanted to find 'Gross domestic product: expenditure at current market prices', which has the code YBHA, then simply put YBHA in the search box. Your series will be displayed as a graph and you can download it as an Image, CSV or Excel file. You are also given a list of related series.

To find a 4-digit code, you can use the archived page at:
Key Economic Time Series Data

You can also find data by using the Time series explorer tool
Time series explorer

Using this tool you can search by keyword and then refine by topic and when last updated.

The UK economy: a dashboard
A recent site that uses ONS data is the House of Commons Library's UK economy dashboard.
The UK economy: a dashboard

The dashboard allows you to investigate how the UK economy has performed over the past 70 years. It is updated every time the ONS publishes new data.  Data can be downloaded as spreadsheets (CSV files). Topics include: GDP growth, inflation, international trade, work and incomes, and public finances.

The dashboard also includes periodic economic updates on how the UK economy is performing.
Economic update

2. Bank of England Statistics

The statistics area of the Bank's site contains a large range of monetary and financial data.
Statistics

The statistics include the monthly publication, Bankstats, available as separate tables grouped into categories (scroll down) or as a zip file of all tables grouped into Excel Workbooks (click on Bankstats tables).
Bankstats

There is also a large range of banking, monetary and financial statistics in the Monetary & Financial Statistics Tables section. There are two easy ways of accessing the statistics in the database. The first is by category of table using the following link:
Monetary & Financial Statistics Tables

First you click on a category (e.g. Money and lending); then select a series (e.g. Monthly growth rates of M4 and M4 Lending) by clicking on the "+" sign to open up the options and then again with the selected option; then check the relevant series and click on 'Next' at the bottom of the screen; then select the date range and click on View data; then click on the down arrow at the top of the Date column if you wish to display the data in ascending date order; then choose a format in which to view the table (Copy (HTML), CSV, Excel or Print).

The second method is to use the A to Z listing using the following link (this also includes other data sets):
A–Z data sets

First you choose the topic. Then, as above, check the relevant series and click on 'Next' at the bottom of the screen; then select the date range and click on View data; then click on the down arrow at the top of the Date column if you wish to display the data in ascending date order; then choose a format in which to view the table (Copy (HTML), CSV, Excel or Print).

Search facility. As with the ONS site, each of the datasets has a unique identifying code, normally seven digits. They combine a prefix (usually three letters), which contains some information about the type and frequency of the data (for internal use), and a four digit character code. Thus, the code for seasonally adjusted M4 (quarterly figures) is LPQAUYN. You can put this into the search box at the top right of each page. Bankstats tables have the code at the top of each column of figures

You can use the same search box for key words, such as 'money'.

3. The Treasury

The Treasury site (now on GOV.UK) is also a very useful source of UK data. The main site can be accessed via the following link.
HM Treasury

In the Research and statistics section you will find Latest Economic Indicators.
Research and statistics

There is also a section of the site which gives forecasts for the UK economy by around 16 to 25 independent organisations. It also gives averages of these forecasts. This section is updated monthly to take account of new forecasts.

There is also a separate section on the site for the Budget, the Spending Review and the Spring Statement (use the links in the site's top right-hand navigation panel). The full reports, tables and charts can be downloaded.

4. Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR)

The OBR was set up by the Coalition government in 2010 to provide forecasts and analysis of the UK's public finances.
The role of the OBR

It produces a number of publications.
Publications

These include the Economic and Fiscal Outlook, which is published twice per year in the Spring and Autumn and sets out forecasts for the economy and the public finances over a five-year horizon. 
Economic and Fiscal Outlook 
(Use the right-hand select box to choose a particular issue)

They also include the annual Fiscal Risks and Sustainability report. This presents long-term projections for public spending and tax revenue and identifies and analyses risks to the medium-term outlook for the public finances and to long-term fiscal sustainability.
Fiscal Risks and Sustainability
(Again, use the right-hand select box to choose a particular issue.)

It also provides a commentary on the monthly Public Sector Finances published by the ONS.
Monthly Commentary on the Public Sector Finances

There is also a very useful and comprehensive data section containing a
Public finances databank
This has a large range of data series for financial years going back to 1946/47 and includes forecasts for the next five years. There are 27 main indicators given in current prices in one worksheet and 24 in another in constant prices and 26 in another as percentages of GDP. For four series there are data going back to 1900/01. There is also a worksheet of public-sector receipts under 32 categories.

5. Institute for Fiscal Studies

The IFS is an independent research institute which publishes research; podcasts, explainers & calculators; announcements and commentary relevant to fiscal policy, public finances, incomes and the UK economy. It conducts a detailed analysis of the Budget, Sending Review and Statement (Spring or Autumn) each year:
Budget analysis

It also publishes regular press releases related to its work.
Press releases

Prior to the Budget each year, it provides its Green Budget analysis, which provides relevant background data and analysis. This is to fill the gap left by the lack of a background government 'green paper' on the Budget. Green papers of data and analysis are often published by the government prior to bringing in legislation – but not in the case of the Budget.
Green Budget

You can browse the IFS site by topic. The 11 topics include Business and investment, Consumption and prices, Employment and income, and Poverty, inequality and social mobility.
Topics

6. GOV.UK Statistics

This is the UK's site for official government statistics. You can search the data by topic (such as business and industry, environment, money or work). Under each topic, you can search by subtopic. Thus, Business and industry can be searched by 12 subtopics, including Financial services, Industrial strategy, Manufacturing, Trade and investment or UK economy). It can also be searched by keyword or by government department or organisation. There are also international data that you can search by country. You can also select a date range for publication.
Statistics

B. International data sites

The following sites give access to international data. Some of the data are for individual countries; some are for groups of countries.

7. European Central Bank Statistics

On the ECB site you will find a statistical section containing a number of series. The index can be accessed via the following link:
ECB Statistical Section
From there you can access the
Data Portal

The Economic Bulletin and Annual Report are particularly useful
Economic Bulletin
Annual Report

It has a section on monetary policy, with information on monetary policy decisions, the latest economic, monetary and financial developments and the structure of the euro area economy.
Monetary policy

8. Economic and Financial Affairs DG

The  European Commission's Economic and Financial Affairs DG site contains a wealth of data on EU and other countries. The home page of the directorate is:
Economic and Financial Affairs
with a list of sections on the following page:
Economy and Finance

Annual Macroeconomic Database (AMECO)
AMECO contains a large range of annual time-series data for the 27 EU countries, the EU candidates, the EEA countries and other OECD countries, including the UK. There are approximately 700 indicators in the dataset. Many of the indicators go back to 1960 and forecast ahead for two years. The data can be viewed online and is accessed from:
AMECO

6-monthly forecasts
By clicking on the following link, you will arrive at the 6-monthly forecasts for each of the 27 EU countries, the euro area, the 27 EU countries as a whole and also the UK, the USA, Japan and China. Apart from containing a comprehensive verbal economic report (plus tables) of each country and the EU as a whole, there is a comprehensive statistical annex with 61 tables of time series data, plus forecasts for the next one or two years. This can be downloaded under the documents section as a PDF file.
Index of Economic Forecasts

It may be useful to know how to import a table from PDF into Excel. Also, with an Excel file containing many rows or columns, it may be useful to keep the header rows (or columns) of the spreadsheet static while the rest of the figures can be moved with the scroll bar or mouse wheel.

Business and Consumer Surveys
The European Economy site also contains monthly business and consumer surveys. There are two main indicators: the Economic Sentiment Indicator (ESI) and the Employment Expectations Indicator (EEI). You can access the latest ones here:
Business and Consumer Surveys: Latest

You can also access longer time series. You can download these as sets of zipped Excel files, one for each type of indicator: economic sentiment, employment expectations, uncertainty, industry (including investment), services, consumers, retail trade, construction, financial services and labour hoarding. In most cases they can be downloaded as seasonally or non-seasonally adjusted data. The series give monthly data from 1985 and, for some series, quarterly data too. See the Index in the first worksheet of each file for the meaning of the codes used in the tables. The tables give indicators for the EU as a whole, for each of the 27 EU countries, for the eurozone, for the UK and for other non-EU countries. You will find all these at:
Business and Consumer Surveys: Time Series

9. OECD Statistics Portal (including OECD Economic Outlook)

On this site you will find a whole range of statistics for each of the 38 OECD countries, the euro area, the G20, the G7 and the OECD as a whole. The statistics are arranged by topic group, including Economy, Society, Employment, Finance and investment, Health, Education and skills. There are over 1500 datasets, grouped under various headings, including: Economy, Taxation, Regional, rural and urban development, Trade, Development, Industry, business and entrepreneurship, Environment, Finance and investment, Agriculture and fisheries, Transport and Climate change.
OECD Data

OECD Economic Outlook
From the catalogue you can also link to the OECD Economic Outlook. This six-monthly publication contains a large database, now accessible within OECD Data Explorer, with annual and quarterly macroeconomic data for each of the OECD countries plus selected other countries or groups. There are nearly 300 variables, which you can easily select from a pull-down menu. You can also customise them by country and year and export them to Excel or other formats. The data go back at least 20 years and in many cases back to 1960. There are also forecasts for at least one year ahead.
OECD Economic Outlook

The Statistical Annex contains 60 tables, which you can access in OECD Data Explorer or download as a single Excel file with each table in a separate worksheet. You can also download them as a PDF file. Alternatively you can download them as seven separate Excel workbooks, each on a particular theme and containing two of more tables as worksheets.
Statistical Annex

All the data used to construct the statistical tables and to develop the Economic Outlook in general are accessible in the online Economic Outlook database on OECD Data Explorer.

OECD Data Explorer
This section of the site contains various datasets classified under 16 headings, including Economy, Finance and investment, Trade and Development. You can customise the datasets by series, frequency, countries, indicator, unit of measure and time period and download them as an Excel file, as various types of CSV files or via the OECD's application programming interface (API).
OECD Data Explorer

10. World Bank data sets

The World Bank site contains a vast database of economic, social and other development statistics for all countries of the world. Although much of the data on the site is available only by subscription, the following link takes you to quite a large selection of open-access data, which you can search by country and indicator:
Open data

The World Bank also publishes its annual World Development Report. You can download the reports for each year from the following:
World Development Reports

The database of World Development Indicators can be found at:
World Development Indicators

The World Bank provides a number of data portals which provide data dashboards on various topics. These allow the visual display of data, using Databank.
Data portals and tools

Since 2017, the World Bank has been publishing an Atlas of Sustainable Development Goals, built around World Development Indicators. This uses data to present interactive storytelling and data visualisations about 17 Sustainable Development Goals. You can choose a particular country as a point of comparison in all stories, with the selected country highlighted in the visualisations. The fourth edition was published in 2023.
Atlas of Sustainable Development Goals

The World Bank site has a section on World Integrated Trade Solutions (WITS). This allows you to visualise countries' exports to and imports from various countries. It also details products exported and their export and import share. You can also visualise different types of tariff.
Trade Data Visualization

11. IMF data sets

Country reports for all countries of the world can be found via the following link:
Country Information

Four particularly useful publications are the World Economic Outlook (see also WEO databases), Global Financial Stability Report, Fiscal Monitor and Annual Report. These publications and several others can be accessed via the following link, which also includes a search feature and links to a range of data resources, including datasets, documents, tables, videos and news.
IMF data

A number of additional IMF datasets are available for free access on the IMF Data site, including data on monetary and financial statistics, international reserves and liquidity, merchandise trade, national economic accounts, investment, exchange rates, balance of payments, prices and financial access.
Datasets
 

12. WTO international trade statistics

The statistics section of the WTO site contains a number of databases and publications providing extensive access to trade and tariff data.
Global trade statistics

There are several parts to the site. These include: data on Merchandise trade; Trade in services; Tariffs; and two relatively new sections: Global value chains, which measures and analyses trade in value added, and Non-tariff measures.

There is also a section with trade maps, where countries are colour-coded on a world map by the values of six indicators.
Trade maps

There is also a data portal, which "contains statistical indicators related to WTO issues. Available time series cover merchandise trade and trade in services statistics (annual, quarterly and monthly), market access indicators (bound, applied and preferential tariffs), non-tariff information as well as other indicators".
Data portal

A publication that analyses recent global trade developments and presents the WTO's forecasts for merchandise trade volume is the Global Trade Outlook and Statistics. This gives breakdowns of merchandise and commercial services trade by sector and region, together with details on leading traders. The report is issued twice a year as a PDF document. The main forecast is issued in April while the update is published in October.
Global Trade Outlook and Statistics

A particularly useful part of the site that allows you to download a zip file of Excel files containing 62 tables of trade data is:
World Trade Statistics

13. UNCTAD statistics

The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) site has an online statistical database, UNCTADstat. This contains data on international trade, economy and finance (including national accounts, balance of payments, foreign direct investment (FDI)), productive capacities, inflation and exchange rates, commodity prices and public finance), maritime transport, environment and related trade, digital economy and technology, and population and inclusiveness.
UNCTADstat Data centre

You can also download the annual World Investment Report in PDF files at:
World Investment Report (WIR)

The above report contains many tables on global and regional FDI, cross-border mergers and acquisitions (M&As) and transnational corporations (TNCs).

The Annexes to the World Investment Report (scroll down on the WIR page) contain a range of additional FDI, M&A and TNC statistics that can be downloaded as 20 Excel files.

Also, at the bottom right of the WIR page are country and regional fact sheets on FDI stocks and flows.

14. Bank for International Settlements

The Bank for International Settlements is "an international organisation which fosters international monetary and financial cooperation and serves as a bank for central banks". From the governance & organisation part of the site you can access the websites of each of the world's central banks.
Member banks

...and working and research papers published by central banks.
Central Bank research hub

There is also a substantial statistical section. It is the best source for data on nominal and real exchange rate indices. It uses narrow indices (comprising 26 and 27 economies for the nominal and real indices, respectively) with data going back to 1964, and broad indices (comprising 64 economies) with data going back to 1994. Using the 'Sample tables' and 'Filters', you can customise your own tables and export them to Excel or CSV by clicking on 'Export' at the top right and then selecting the 'Table' tab. 
BIS effective exchange rate indices

A large range of banking, financial and macroeconomic data can be found using the:
BIS Data Portal

The statistical section also has data on cross-border lending and borrowing of banks:
Locational banking statistics

It also has information and data on consumer prices, residential property prices, central bank assets, global liquidity, debt securities and derivatives. 

Also, every three years BIS conducts a global central bank survey of activity in the foreign exchange market. The final results of the April 2025 survey were released in June 2026.
Triennial Central Bank Survey of foreign exchange and over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives markets in 2025

The statistical section also has a link to the joint BIS-IMF-OECD-World Bank statistics on external debt, see:
Joint External Debt Hub (JEDH)

You can also find details of the payments systems in 26 countries plus the eurozone, including data on money supply, total bank notes and coin issued, data on banks and other financial institutions including branches and value of accounts, cards issued, ATMs, transactions per type of payment instrument, number and value of securities and derivatives trades and many other indicators:
Financial market infrastructures and critical service providers

15. UN Statistics Division

The United Nations Statistics Division site has a large range of world and individual country data. An easy way to access them is via Topics from the top bar of the home page.
Home page
There are eight broad topics: Coordination, Development indicators, Economy, Environment, Geospatial information, Governance and quality, Innovation and Population and society. Each is divided into sub-topics. For example, Economy is divided into Basic Economic Statistics, Business Statistics, Energy Statistics, Industrial Statistics, National Accounts, Tourism Statistics and Trade Statistics.

Also from the top bar you can access various datasets under Data. These include a 'data commons'.
UN Data
Using the 'Explore' feature in the top bar, you can select an indicator by location, thematic area and partner. You can also select thematic areas from the icons. Having chosen a dataset, you can download it as an XML or CSV file.

You can also use the Data tab on the Home page to access various statistical publications, such as the Monthly Bulletin of Statistics (MBS), Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) indicators and the UN Comtrade database of global trade data.

You can also use the Publications tab on the Home page to access other key UN statistical publications. These include:
Statistical Yearbook
World Statistics Pocketbook
and again the Monthly Bulletin of Statistics

16. NationMaster

This is a compilation of thousands of data series, from sources including national statistical agencies, the UN, WTO and OECD. As well as profiles of individual countries including their maps and flags, you can browse the data by topic, including education, economy, crime, mortality or health. The site offers a 'facility to create correlation reports and scatter-plots on the fly'.
NationMaster

From the home page you can select any of 300 sectors grouped into nine categories (such as Manufacturing and Financial Services). There is also a search box at the top for sectors and statistics.

Also at the bottom of the home page, you can use the pull-down menu in the 'More Statistics' section to access 26 categories of 'Top Stats', statistics for 33 groups of countries or 'Geographic Entities' (such as the EU, the G7 and heavily indebted countries) and 27 Other Sectors and topics (such as economy, industry, education and environment).

There are country profiles for 305 countries and geographical entities
Country profiles

17. Gapminder

Gapminder allows you to chart three indicators (from a very large selection) over time for most countries simultaneously, with data going back decades, or even centuries for some indicators. The charts allow you to see very easily the differences between countries: hence the title of the site! The following link takes you to Gapminder World.
Gapminder World

The link above takes you to the default view, which is Chart View, where you can choose which indicator to put on each axis by clicking on each axis in turn and selecting from the drop-down list. Each axis can be shown in linear or log mode. Each country is represented by a bubble, whose colour varies by continent. The size of the bubble gives the third indicator, whose default is the population size, but again you can use a drop-down menu (bottom right or right, depending on your browser) to select this third indicator. The default is all countries, but you can select just one or more countries from a list on the right. The non-selected countries appear in faded colour. You can use a slider under the list of countries to fade them out completely if you prefer. You can also track the path of your selected countries over time if you choose.

A guide to Chart View is given at:
Gapminder World Guide

An alternative view is the Map view (click on Bubbles link at top left of screen and then Maps). Each country bubble is positioned on a world map. The size of the bubble gives one indicator. A second indicator can be shown by colour gradation of the bubbles. Again, you can select individual countries from the menu on the right.

Other views include Income, Trends, Ranks, Ages and Table (again click on the menu at top left of screen).

The site also has a range of videos which examine specific data.
Gapminder videos

18. Databook

Databook provides free data for over 240 countries covering a range of indicators. It is available in 25 languages (use drop-down menu at the top right of the Home page).
Home page

The site is organised by country:
Countries
When you click on a country, you are given an overview description and some data. You can then choose from 15 topics for that country, including:  Economy, Infrastructure, Labour and Environment & Energy. You can find a description of each topic under the Topics tab. When you choose a topic for a country, you are given an overview and then a range of figures from which you can see specific values by using the cursor. There is then a list of key indicators for that topic, each with its source.

Using the Rankings tab, you can compare countries by 31 different indicators grouped into five categories: Economy, Geography, Energy & Climate, Population and Health.
Rankings

You can also compare country data for eight indicators by selecting countries using a drop-down list.
Compare

On the Home page, there is also a link to a companion site, LOGIbook, which profiles 58,730 ports, airports, terminals, trade zones, carriers and transport hubs across 250 countries.
LOGIbook

19. IndexMundi

IndexMundi contains detailed country statistics, charts, and maps compiled from multiple sources. You can explore and analyse thousands of indicators organised by region, country, topic, sector, and type. (See also site 32 below).
IndexMundi

The IndexMundi site has a powerful graphing feature which you can use for the following:

World and continent maps showing colour-coded information and data tables by country for 74 separate indicators (use the drop-down menus):
World maps by indicator

Bar charts with figures for ranking countries for a range of indicators:
Country comparison charts

Times series charts and tables that allow you to compare up to four countries using up to ten indicators:
Historical data graphs

Correlation scatter charts (plus table) that allow you to compare two indicators for all countries for a selected year:
Correlation charts

20. FRED: Federal Reserve Economic Data

Over 850,000 US and international time series from over 120 sources updated daily from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
Fred home page
Time series data

21. EconStats from EconomyWatch

The EconomyWatch site includes news and country briefings under various headings, such as:
Economic conditions
International trade
Monetary policy

A full list of topics can be found at the bottom of each page.

22. Penn World Table

Penn World Table 11.0 by Robert C. Feenstra, Robert Inklaar and Marcel P. Timmer is provided by the University of Groningen's Growth and Development Centre. It is a database with information on relative levels of income, output, input and productivity, covering 185 countries between 1950 and 2023. Data may be opened in Excel or Stata.
Penn World Table 11.0 Database

There is also a comprehensive User Guide for version 11.0.

23. Trading Economics

Trading Economics provides data with commentary for 196 countries. The site includes historical data and forecasts for more than 20 million economic indicators, such as exchange rates, stock market indexes, government bond yields and commodity prices. The data are from official sources.
Trading Economics

You can access data by countries and indicators. There are also data on financial markets, including currencies, stock market indices and shares within each one, commodities, bonds, crypto and earnings.

There is also a News stream, which can be filtered by economy or markets.

24. ILOSTAT

ILOSTAT is the International Labour Organization's site for labour statistics. The ILO was created in 1919, as part of the Treaty of Versailles. In 1946, the ILO became a specialised agency of the United Nations.
Home page

Under the Data tab you can access data by indicator or country or ILO region.
Data

You can also use the Data Explorer to find, filter, pivot, and download ILOSTAT data in various formats.
Data Explorer

From the top menu on the Home page you can access Country Profiles. There is also a Blog.

25. The Conference Board datasets

The Conference Board, founded in 1916, is an independent non-profit global organisation. Its aim is "to help leaders navigate the biggest issues impacting business and better serve society". Amongst other activities, it provides a range of international data.
Economic Data & Analysis
Many of the datasets are available only to subscribers. However, there are free data on the site too.

Particularly useful datasets include:
Global Economic Outlook
This tracks the latest short-, medium- and long-term growth outlooks for 77 economies.
Global Leading Indicators
This tracks the state of the business cycle for 12 major economies across the world, plus the EU and the whole world.

On the site you will also find a Total Economy Database, which provides annual data covering GDP, population, employment, hours, labour quality, capital services, labour productivity and total factor productivity for a range of countries. There is a freely available document with 14 tables and 6 charts from the latest update.
Total Economy Database
(To download the full database you will have to set up a free guest account. You can set up an account by clicking on 'Create Account' and download data at The Conference board Data Central.)

26. USDA International Macroeconomic Data Set

This international macroeconomic dataset is on the U.S. Department of Agriculture site. It 'provides historical and projected data for 181 countries that account for more than 99 percent of the world economy'.
International Macroeconomic Data Set

The site also includes agricultural data for a range of countries and regions. It also has baseline data on International agricultural trends

27. Asian Development Bank: Data and Research

The Asian Development Bank publishes a range of economic, financial, social, environmental and Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) statistics on its 50 member countries from the Asia and Pacific region (there are 69 members in total). In the data section, you can find statistics on a number of indicators.
Data and Statistics

Four useful statistical publications are:
Basic Statistics Series
Asian Development Review (ADR)
Key Indicators (KI) for Asia and the Pacific Series
Asian Development Outlook (ADO)

In each case data are available to download to Excel.

28. Countryeconomy.com

This Spanish site has a large range of macroeconomic and market data from official sources. You can access the data by country:
Countries
or by indicator
Indicators
Broad indicators can also be found from the top navigation bar. Clicking on an indicator (e.g. GDP) takes you to a list of countries. Clicking on any of these gives you a range of specific data for that country for that broad indicator.

The site can be accessed in English, Spanish, Portuguese and French (change language here).

29. Our World in Data

Our World in Data is a project of the Global Change Data Lab, a non-profit organisation based in the UK. The mission of the site 'is focused on increasing the use of data and evidence to make progress against the world’s largest problems'. The data are organised under 126 clickable topics, under 10 broad headings, such as Poverty and Economic Development, Energy and Environment, and Food and Agriculture.
Topics

Topics include:
Healthcare Spending
Agricultural Production
Food Prices
Economic Inequality
Economic Growth
Trade and Globalization

When you click on a topic, there is first an introduction, with links to articles and datasets on related topics. Then there are various interactive charts, which can also be presented as a table. The charts can be downloaded as a PNG or SVG file. The data can be downloaded as a ZIP file containing a CSV file, metadata in JSON format, and a README. The CSV file can be opened in Excel, Google Sheets, and other data analysis tools.

Many of the charts are time series. You can play these charts as a video starting at the earliest time playing through to the latest. You can download the data for any given year or the full dataset.

The site also contains 'Data Explorers' on 29 topics. These gather many indicators together to provide comprehensive overviews of their topics. You can choose which countries to display/analyse. There are also articles and information under each of the topics in the Data Explorer.
Data Explorers

C. Market data

The following sites provide data on UK and international markets for individual commodities, shares or products.

30. Yahoo Finance

The following link is to the home page, from which you can access the various sections of the site, including market data, sectors and personal finance.
Yahoo Finance: home page

In the market data section you can access market information on currencies, cryptocurrencies, most active stocks and world stock market indices.

When you click on a particular stock or market, you get a full-page graph. You can then select the period covered. You can easily read prices on any day over any time period. For individual stocks, you can select various information from the left-hand menu. For shares, these include Profile, Historical data (as a table), Statistics and News. For indices, there is a more limited choice, but it includes Historical data (for most indices), News and Components of the index.

You can also see additional stock or market prices on the same screen on the same dates by clicking on Chart from the left-hand menu and then the 'Comparison' tab directly above the graph. For example, the following shows the FTSE 100 graph, with comparison data for the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) and the Nasdaq Composite (IXIC).
FTSE 100

31. Financial Times Markets Data

This is a well presented and clearly navigable site for finding financial market data.
Markets Data

The default view is an overview of markets. These include major global stock market indices (which you can refine by Global, Americas, Europe & Africa and Asia-Pacific), Currencies, Commodities and Bonds. In each case, in addition to the data, there are links to relevant news articles.

From the white highlighted bar under the FT's main sections you can select from a range of markets from the Markets Data section, including:
Equities, where you can find shares by company name or ticker or search by country, sector & industry or equity attributes (such as market capitalisation or dividend yield).
Currencies. You can compare two currencies and display their cross rates for up to 5 years.
Commodities
Bonds
Funds and ETFs. You can search by fund name or use the Fund Screener to find funds by investment focus (i.e. sector or region), by fund attributes (returns, expense ratio or total net assets) or by fund company or issuer. There is also the function to compare the performance of up to five funds.
World Markets (from the Equities tab). You can search market indices by market name or by region or country (using a world map or by name).

There are also League Tables of companies by performance.

Also, there is a Compound Growth Calculator, which allows you to "explore the time value of money, the impact of regular contributions, and the power of saving over longer timeframes."

32. IndexMundi commodities

The IndexMundi site has an extensive set of commodity price data drawn from the IMF.
Commodity Prices

These can be charted for a 6-month, 1, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25 or 30-year range. The figures also appear in a table which can be downloaded to Excel (although you will first have to register to download the data - it's free to register). Alternatively you can simply copy the figures and paste them into Excel.

There are also links to recent news articles relevant to the selected commodity.

The site also contains country data, which can be found from the site's home page.
IndexMundi: home page

Details of the charting features of the country data can be found above at site 19

33. Statista

Statista is a leading provider of market and consumer data, with some 18 million visits per month. It covers 80,000 topics from over 50,000 sources in 170 industries.
Home page

Many of the datasets are free to display as line or bar graphs, with the values of data points displayed. If you want to download the data, you have to subscribe to the site.

Its statistics are grouped into 22 industry groups. These include Agriculture, Consumer goods, E-commerce, Energy & environment, Finance & insurance, the Internet, Metals & electronics, Retail & trade, Services, Technology & telecommunications and Transportation & logistics.

There is also a section on Economy & Politics.

Other parts of the site, containing country and market outlooks, reports, etc. are not free.

34. Energy Information Administration

This is a US government site, but it gives international as well as US data on electricity, coal, gas, nuclear power and oil.
Home page

For individual country analyses, using the top bar, select the 'Analysis' tab and then under 'International' from its top bar see:
Analysis and select Country or Region of interest or Special topics

You can download Excel files of daily, weekly, monthly and annual spot prices for various fuels.
Spot fuel Prices

For example, monthly historical prices for Brent crude are at:
Brent crude prices
Use the 'View history' panel at the top to toggle between annual, monthly, weekly and daily prices.

35. The UK government's Debt Management Office

This UK government site has, amongst other things, market data on Gilt markets and Treasury Bill markets.
UK Debt Management Office (DMO)
Data

36. Reuters Market Data

The Reuters news site has a section on markets. The section home page is:
Reuters: Markets
This contains latest markets news, information and analysis.

The section's top bar gives links to various markets and data. One useful link is to:
Global market data, including stock market indices by world region, specific sectors and industries, commodities, currencies, rates and bonds.

Other useful sub-sectors for data are:
Commodities
Currencies, including currency pairs
Rates & Bonds, with data on bond yields and central bank interest rates by country

Markets news can be found from the same top bar under a number of categories, including:
Carbon markets
Deals
Emerging markets
ETFs (exchange-traded funds)
Funds
Wealth
Econ World

37. UK house prices

There are five excellent sites for UK house price data.

UK House Price Indices (ONS using Land Registry data)
The following link takes you to reports on the UK housing market and house prices.
UK House Price Index: reports

The reports contain summary data and charts. They also contain links to the underlying datasets. You can customise the datasets by topic, year, etc. and download your selection to Excel using the following link.
UK HPI tool

Click on search the UK house price index and then choose from the various options. You can then download your selected data to Excel (CSV file) or another spreadsheet.

Nationwide house prices site
This gives quarterly movements in national house prices since 1952. More detailed series distinguishing type of property, type of buyer and region are given from more recent years (1973, 1983 or 1991). Data can be downloaded as charts or as Excel spreadsheets.
House Prices: Chart Data Download

Lloyds House Price Index (previously Halifax House Price Index))
The Lloyds Price Index site shows the movements in UK house prices over the past 13 months. This is a free site. There is a much more extensive set of national, regional and housing-type data going back to 1983, which used to be free but has now been moved to the Markit site where a subscription is required to access the data.
Lloyds House Price Index (click on white box for PDF file)

House price forecasts from the Office for Budget Responsibility
The OBR forecasts are based on leading indicators of house price inflation, the medium-term path for house price inflation informed by various models and the effects of new policies announced by the Government that the OBR judges will affect house prices.
Housing market

See also the following paper on the house price forecasting methodology used by the OBR.
Forecasting house prices

Zoopla
The site gives real-time house price valuations by postcode, as well as house price trends by region.
Home values

38. International property prices

There are three useful sites for international property prices.

The Bank for International Settlements
The BIS site (see site 14 above) has a section on residential and commercial property prices in a range of countries that can be downloaded as an Excel file.
Property price statistics from BIS

Global Property Guide
You may also find the following site useful, which is designed for residential property investors who are considering buying houses or apartments in other countries. It tracks official and semi-official house price indices in 59 countries. It also has data on gross rental yields, market structures, conveyancing costs, landlord and tenant law and effective tax rates for residential property in over 100 countries.
Global Property Guide

IMF
The IMF's Global Housing Watch tracks developments in housing markets across the world on a quarterly basis. It provides current data on house prices as well as metrics used to assess valuation in housing markets, such as house-price‑to‑rent and house-price‑to‑income ratios.
Global Housing Watch

39. UK labour market data from Adzuna

Adzuna is a job search site, launched in 2011. It has a large database of jobs for the UK and for 10 other countries. You can search by job type and location.
UK job search site

A useful part of the site for finding salary data is:
Salary Stats

This again allows you search by job type and location. Monthly data are displayed for the past year.

There are also national data on salaries and vacancies available at:
UK Labour Market Stats
Also on this part of the site you can compare salaries for specific jobs or in specific locations with the national average.

40. worldwide-tax.com

This site has key data on world taxes, including income tax rates, a tax rates comparison table, links to the history of tax, to world tax and revenue administrations and a directory of world stock exchanges. It also has links to individual countries with general information, information on service providers and business opportunities, and data on taxation and the economy.
Home page

A useful section is:
Tax rates around the world
This is presented as a table giving the rates for each country, with many of the countries clickable to give you more information.

41. Mergers and Acquisitions Statistics from the IMAA

The resources section of the Institute of Mergers, Acquisitions and Alliances (IMAA) site provides extensive and regularly updated statistics on Mergers and Acquisitions worldwide. Much of the data is open access and is organised by the following: Region, Transaction type, Industry and Country.
Open-access M&A Statistics

By signing up as a free user you can also download M&A data and statistics with the actual numbers in spreadsheets (Google Sheets and Excel format).
Register as free user

D. Portals with links to other sites

These sites provide links to other sites with a range of economic data.

42. UK Data Service

This is a data service funded by the UK's Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). It gives access to a range of datasets from national and international organisations. In addition to these datasets, the UK Data Service includes data from Census.ac.uk, Secure Data Service (SDS) and Survey Question Bank (SQB).

To gain free access to some of the datasets linked from the site you will need to enter your UK university/college username and password in the Login box on the Home Page. You will first need to register from the same page.

UK Data Service home page

You can browse the data sets by theme:
Browse by theme
The eight themes include Economics, Equality & Inequality, Health and Labour & Employment.
The Economics theme contains 15 popular datasets, including from the World Bank, the OECD and the IMF. Some of these do not require prior registration. 

Other data resources include:
Teaching datasets
QualiBank: a selection of qualitative surveys, interview and open-ended questions
The Nesstar Catalogue of key social and economic data
Census data
Qualitative/mixed methods data

The Help page groups data into different types:
Different types of data
Two particularly relevant types for economists are:
Business microdata and
International macrodata

43. AEA Data Sources

AEA Data Sources is part of the Resources section of the American Economic Association site.
Data Sources
It gives links to very many online data sources, categorised by region. Categories include US Macroeconomic Data, Other US Data, and World and Non-US Data.

The top page of the World and Non-US Data section gives links to five sources of international data and to another page with links to many more sites of world data, indices, country studies, and more:
World and Non-US Data
 

44. Development Initiatives

Development Initiatives (DI) (Devinit.org) is "a global organisation harnessing the power of data and evidence to end poverty, reduce inequality and increase resilience". It works "closely with partners at global, regional, national and local levels to ensure data-driven evidence and analysis are used effectively in policy and practice".
Home page

In the datasets part of the site, you can search for data by Reports, Data sources, Topics and Countries. There are 55 datasets linked on the site.
Datasets

45. Economy.com

This site from Moody's Analytics links to a vast range of data from all countries of the world.
Home page

The home page itself gives today's economic releases from around the world.

For the full range of data, use the top bar on the home page, where you can search by region or indicator. The 'Regions' tab allows you to access a specific country by continent and then a specific indicator for that country. This gives data for the past 13 months, quarters or years (depending on the series) as a bar chart with the figures visible.

Alternatively, you can use the 'Indicators' tab to select an indicator from a choice of 87. This takes you to a country list with the latest and previous value for that indicator for each country. Again, clicking on a specific country gives a bar chart for that indicator with the data for the past 13 periods.

The site also serves as a portal to the external sites from which the data are extracted. This allows you to access the full original dataset. For example, if under 'Regions' you select 'Europe' and then the United Kingdom, you might then choose Real Gross Domestic Product. Then, under the chart, in the Series Information, you can click on Quarterly National Accounts and this takes you to the full dataset from the Office for National Statistics.

46. Economic Hotlinks from Pearson Education

This portal site contains links to 283 sites of economic data and information.
Home page

It is organised into the following nine sections:
General news sources
Sources of economic and business data
Sites for students and teachers of economics
Economic models, simulations and classroom experiments
UK government and UK organisations' sites
Sources of monetary and financial data
European Union and related sources
International organisations