Objective of the Site
This site, which first appeared in 1998, has been completely updated as of April 2019. Broken links have been eliminated, and new sources of national, sub-national and Geographic Information System (GIS) data have been added. However, new data sources are constantly being created and old sites regularly updated. Individual page data will be updated with new or revised data during 2019. The older material on the site concentrates on national time series data, mainly (but not exclusively) for developing countries, provided in large part by international organizations. The recent additions include many new sources of data at the sub-national level which are becoming increasingly available. This revision also includes data on GIS shapefiles available for developing countries. All sites listed provide free data. This revision also includes information on open-source software (including GIS) available to access, analyze and process the data. In some cases suggestions have been made on how to use the websites. A limited number of links to training material have been included. The site has been developed to be of general interest, but particularly useful to governments, businesses and students. The site is designed to make it accessible in low-bandwidth areas in developing countries.