International Data

Macroeconomic data

The National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) assembled an extensive data during the first several decades of its existence, that covers all aspects of the pre-WWI and interwar economies, including production, construction, employment, money, prices, asset market transactions, foreign trade, and government activity. Many series are highly disaggregated, and many exist at the monthly or quarterly frequency. The data set has some coverage of the United Kingdom, France and Germany, although it predominantly covers the United States.

• NBER Macrohistory dataset

Annual international cross-country data on a range of macroeconomic variables since 1870 covering 17 advanced economies has been complied by the Macrohistory project run by Òscar Jordà, Moritz Schularick and Alan Taylor. The UK data for this dataset has been drawn from many of the sources in this repository.

• JST Macrohistory dataset

Monthly international data for many countries in the interwar period can be found in the International Abstract of Economic Statistics published for 1919-1930 and 1931-1936 which was co-ordinated by the International Statistical Institute at the Hague. We are grateful to Stephen Penneck and the International Statistical Institute for the their permission to reproduce these.

• International Abstract of Economic Statistics 1919-30
• International Abstract of Economic Statistics 1931-1936

Subsequently the Statistical Yearbooks of the League of Nations and United Nations covered international data for the interwar and postwar periods and can be found here

• League of Nations and United Nations Statistical Yearbooks from 1926

Historical statistics from 1970 from the OECD can be found at the link below

• OECD historical statistics

Productivity and comparative economic growth data

The Maddison Project Database provides information on comparative economic growth and income levels over the very long run covering 169 countries and the latest work by economic historians. Links to Angus Maddison's original work can also be found here

• Maddison Project Database 2020

The Measuring Worth website curated by Professor Sam Williamson provides historical data on important economic aggregates and measures of comparative value, with particular emphasis on nominal (current-price) measures, as well as real (constant-price) measures. The data cover Spain, United States, the United Kingdom and Australia and stretch back to medieval times.

• Measuring Worth website

For historical cross-country productivity data on a comparable basis after World War 2 (including data GDP and factor inputs) users should consult the Conference Board Total Economy Database and the EUKLEMS database:

• Total Economy Database
• EU KLEMS

World Trade data

World trade data for 1800-1938 has recently been compiled by Giovanni Federico and Antonio Tena-Junguito and is available at

• World Trade Historical Database 1800-1938

Historical world trade data compiled by the United Nations for 1900-1965 can be found here

• International Trade Statistics 1900-1960.

The data tables can be easily copied and pasted into a spreadsheet from the pdf. Both datasets can be combined with modern data on world trade from the IMF and WTO.

Fiscal data

The European State Finance Database represents the outcome of an international collaborative research project for the collection, archiving and dissemination of data on European fiscal history across the medieval, early modern and modern periods.

• European State Finance Database

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) provide a cross country database on public spending, taxes and deficits for 55 countries stretching back to 1800 which can be found at the link below

• IMF Public Finances in Modern History Database

Global Prices, wages and incomes

The Global Price and Income History Group (GPIH) at UC Davis maintain a database of cross-country price and income data other data from medieval times up to 1950

• GPIH database

The Measuring Worth website curated by Professor Sam Williamson provides historical data on important economic aggregates and measures of comparative value, with particular emphasis on nominal (current-price) measures, as well as real (constant-price) measures. The data cover Spain, United States, the United Kingdom and Australia and stretch back to medieval times.

• Measuring Worth website

The Allen - Unger Global Commodity Prices Database put together by Professor's Bob Allen and Richard Unger covers various countries and stretching back to the medieval period can be found at the link below

• Allen-Unger Global Commodity Prices Database

Financial Statistics

The Center for Financial Stability maintains a set of data on exchange rates, central bank and commercial bank balance sheets, interest rates, money supply, inflation, international trade, government finance and national accounts. The focus is on data from roughly 1500 to 1950. The site is edited by Dr Kurt Schuler

• CFS Historical Financial Statistics

EH.net hosts the The Global Finance database compiled by Olivier Accominotti, Marc Flandreau, and Riad Rezzik. The database is an extension of the one published in Marc Flandreau and Frédéric Zumer’s The Making of Global Finance to which 15 colonies of the British Empire and one sovereign nation (the US) have been added

• Global Finance Database

Real and Nominal Exchange rates

The Medieval and Early Modern Data Bank (MEMDB) project hosted at Rutgers University provides a set of data on nominal exchanges rates and prices for the medieval period

• MEMDB databases

For a range of short-term interest rates and exchange rates at a weekly frequency during the late C19th, covering the key Gold Standard countries, users should consult the Neal-Weidenmier Gold Standard Database. Spreadsheet links are below:

• Neal and Weidenmier interest rates (xls)
• Neal and Weidenmier Exchange Rates (xls)

For international data on trade-weighted effective exchange rates for the Classical Gold Standard Period users should consult the dataset of Catão and Solomou based on their 2005 AER paper

• Effective Exchange Rates and the Classical Gold Standard Adjustment

The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) provide a set of real and nominal effective exchange rate for various countries from 1964 onwards

• BIS nominal and real effective exchange rates from 1964

Sovereign Debt and Financial Crises

The dataset from the study This Time it's Different by Professors Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff includes the first long-dated cross-country historical data on domestic debt. It also provides data for banking crises, sovereign defaults to foreign creditors, sovereign defaults on domestic debt, inflation crises and exchange rate crises. Additional related data can be found at Professor Reinhart's website.

• This Time it's Different dataset
• Professor Carmen Reinhart's datasets

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) provide historical sovereign debt and global debt databases which can be found at the links below:

• IMF Public Debt Database
• IMF Global Debt Database

The Bank of Canada and Bank of England jointly produce a historical database on sovereign debt in default going back to 1960:

• BoC-BoE Sovereign Debt Default Database

This section contains links to various country-specific or area-specific datasets produced by academics, central banks and statistical offices

Africa

• African Economic History Network Datasets
• African Fiscal data since 1890

Asia and Oceania

Australia
• Australian Historical Statistics

India and South Asia
• Digital South Asia Library

Japan
• Bank of Japan Historical Statistics
• Statistics Bureau of Japan Historical Data

Europe

Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands
• Low Countries Data Collection 1350-present

Denmark
• Kim Abildgren's work on Danish Historical Statistics

France
• The General Statistics of France

Germany
• Interwar German Statistics compiled by Professor Albrecht Ritschl

Ireland

• Duanaire project: Public revenues and expenditures of Ireland in the 18th century
• Irish Macro Data from 1920 complied by Dr Rebecca Stuart

Italy
• Banca d'Italia historical statistics

Norway
• Norges Bank's Historical Monetary Statistics for Norway

Portugal
• Portuguese Historical Statistics

Russia
• Historical Statistics of the Soviet Union
• Electronic Repository of Russian Historical Statistics

South Eastern Europe
• South East European Monetary History Network Data

Sweden
• The Riksbank's Historical Monetary Statistics of Sweden

Switzerland
• Swiss Federal Statistics Office Historical Statistics
• Swiss Society for Economic and Social History Historical Statistics

North America

Canada
• Historical Data of Statistics Canada

United States
• Historical Statistics of the United States Bicentennial Edition, Colonial Times to 1970
• Historical Statistics of the United States Millennial Edition
• Users should also consult the academic databases available on the Federal Reserve's Economic Database FRED and the associated archival site FRASER

South and Central America

The Montevideo-Oxford Latin American Economic History Data Base (MOxLAD) provides over 40 economic and social indicators for 20 Latin American countries. MOxLAD covers data from 1870 to 2010.

• MOxLAD database for Latin America from 1870

Brazil
• IPEA data for Brazil from the C19th

The United Nations Statistics Division provide a list of international statistical principles and an inventory of standards covering a wide range of statistics here:

• Fundamental Principles of Official Statistics
• Global Inventory of Statistical Standards

Useful information on the data sources and methodology behind several of the cross-country sources can be found here

• Jordà-Schularick-Taylor Macrohistory Database
• Maddison dataset update for 2020

In due course the following titles will be available to select in the dropdown menus of this section.

• Annual Statement of Trade of the United Kingdom
• International Abstract of Economic Statistics
• League of Nations Statistical Yearbooks digitised by the North Western University Library

Please select a publication title and year from the boxes below to narrow down the list. Alternatively type in a general search term. The available excel and pdf files are shown in the table. If the publication you are looking for is not in this section please see the complete list of downloadable publications.