Data Service: Americas

This page lists general resources. There are also resources for Latin America and the Caribbean and North America.

Further resources on this theme may be found by using SOLO, Databases A-Z, and the relevant subject guides.

General resources

AmericasBarometer

The Latin American Public Opinion Project (LAPOP) is a leader in the development, implementation, and analysis of public opinion surveys. The AmericasBarometer, one of the many and growing activities of LAPOP, is the only survey of democratic public opinion and behaviour that covers the Americas (North, Central, South and the Caribbean). It is an effort by LAPOP to measure democratic values and behaviours in the Americas using national probability samples of voting-age adults.

Developing Country Export Statistics: 1840, 1860, 1880 and 1900

The data collected from official statistics by John R. Hanson for his book 'Trade in Transition: Exports from the Third World, 1840-1900, New York: Academic Press, 1980'. Details about the original sources are given in the Excel file containing:

  • the total value of exports from selected countries in 1840, 1860, 1880 and 1900;

  • the value of exports for each major commodity for thirty developing countries;

  • the geographic destination of these exports, and

  • the value of exports for selected commodities in 1840, 1860, 1880 and 1900.

Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) Country Reports

Data and analysis from the Economist Intelligence Unit which provides an overview of the Americas (Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru, Trinidad and Tobago, United States of America, Venezuela), and covers politics, economy, risk, industry and other issues. This analysis is also used as the basis for five year forecasts of future developments. Reports and statistics are updated monthly.

History Data Desk

The site compiled by Dr. Richard L. Garner contains colonial Latin American datasets, including treasury accounts from cajas reales, to on-line essays analysing mining statistics, bullion exports and commodity prices, to other publications, some can be downloaded, and to the on-line bibliography.

  • Data Files: Colonial Latin American datasets on commodity prices, mineral production, agricultural tithes, commercial exchange and royal finances.

  • Caja Page: Royal treasury accounts from more than 70 cajas in the Spanish colonial Viceroyalties of Mexico and Peru, compiled by John TePaske, Herbert Klein et al. plus the TePaske Page with access to gold and silver series compiled by Tepaske.

International Historical Statistics: The Americas 1750–1988

The IHS series is a key resource providing access to statistics covering a wide range of socio-economic topics. It is a collection of data sets taken from hundreds of disparate primary sources, including both official national and international abstracts dating back to 1750. This edition provides updated statistics covering the Americas. There are vital statistics and statistics for population, labour force, agriculture, industry, external trade, transport and communications, finance, prices, education, and national accounts. Statistical analysis can be conducted across both time and geopolitical boundaries. Data tables can be downloaded as ePDFs and/or Excel files.

IPUMS: Integrated Public Use Microdata Series

IPUMS integrates and disseminates a comprehensive database of area-level US census data and electronic boundaries describing census geography from 1790 to the present; it also provides census and survey data from around the world integrated across time and space. Data and services available free of charge.