Foreign Countries and International Information

Background Notes
Published by the State Department and updated by the Office of Electronic Information and Publications of the Bureau of Public Affairs, Background Notes contains information about the land, people, history, government, political conditions, economy, and foreign relations of independent states, some dependencies, and areas of special sovereignty.

CIA World Factbook
Basic information about every country in the world: communications, defense, economy, flag and map, geography, government, people, and transportation.

Country Reports on Human Rights Practices
From the State Department, this report covers internationally recognized individual, civil, political, and worker rights in each foreign country.

Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor
Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, fact sheets, statements, speeches, testimony, press releases, and reports on human rights abroad, covering religious freedom, racism, intolerance, slavery, torture, children's rights, and women's rights.

Foreign Governments
This site, created by the Northwestern University Library, provides links to official government Web pages for most countries of the world.

International Statistical Agencies
This page provides links to the official government statistics office for virtually every country in the world.

Library of Congress Country Studies/Area Handbooks
This Web site contains the online versions of books previously published (1988-98) in hard copy by the Federal Research Division of the Library of Congress under the Country Studies/Area Handbook Program sponsored by the U.S. Department of the Army. Because the original intent of the series' sponsor was to focus primarily on lesser-known areas of the world or regions in which U.S. forces might be deployed, the series is not all-inclusive. At present, 101 countries and regions are covered.

Contact: Paul Kammerdiner / Email / Phone: 231-591-3037 / Office: FLITE 331

Last update: July 25, 2008