"Gapminder is an independent Swedish foundation with no political, religious, or economic affiliations." (source: website) This website includes data and visualizations regarding various socioeconomic indicators for countries and multiple territories. Some data back to the year 1800. Data is well-sourced, simplifying further research.
From Knoema, a U.S. based company
Includes: world statistics, regional statistics, national data, maps, rankings. Data Calendar features data and visualizations relevant to major events worldwide. Data Bulletin includes the latest releases of new datasets and data updates from different sources around the world (data is well-sourced, simplifying the process of locating additional years of data from a particular source). The Data Coverage Matrix is an easy way to locate available data by country/topic.
(Note: free access allows export to PDF or PNG file formats only. However, these exports include source details.)
Prepared by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), "The World Factbook provides information on the history, people, government, economy, geography, communications, transportation, military, and transnational issues for 267 world entities...Information in The Factbook is collected from - and coordinated with - a wide variety of US Government agencies, as well as from hundreds of published sources...Although many of the facts presented in The Factbook may be found in various other publications, they are conveniently gathered together in one place only at The World Factbook Web site."
The Factbook is continuously updated (weekly, on average).
(Note: the 1975 through 1980 editions were produced semiannually in January and July as National Basic Intelligence Factbook and available to the public; in 1981, the publication was renamed The World Factbook and became an annual publication.)
From University of Wisconsin-Madison
"...provides links to country statistical yearbooks or similar collections (census, "facts and figures," etc.) for 154 countries worldwide."
Links provided by the U.S. Census Bureau
The most robust and/or heavily-used country/regional statistical agency websites are also listed below and in the case of the United Kingdom, on a sub-page of this guide.
Freely accessible public government datasets
(note: view in Internet Explorer)
Open Data: search Government of Canada data, learn how to work with datasets, see what people have done with this data. Open Information: search Government of Canada digital records, completed access to information request summaries, and contracts over $10,000.
"Statistics Canada produces statistics that help Canadians better understand their country--its population, resources, economy, society and culture. In addition to conducting a Census every five years, there are about 350 active surveys on virtually all aspects of Canadian life." (source: website)
Access more than 10,000 datasets produced by more than 75 governments
The European Data Portal harvests the metadata of public data made available across Europe. This portal is developed by the European Commission with the support of a consortium.
The European Union Open Data Portal is the single point of access to a growing range of data from the institutions and other bodies of the European Union (EU). The EU Open Data Portal is managed by the Publications Office of the European Union. Implementation of the EU's open data policy is the responsibility of the Directorate-General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology of the European Commission. (source: website)
Click the Data tab for a wealth of information.
Open platform for French public data