A Great Research Resource for Country Statistics!

Happy Memorial Day! Speaking of Memorial Day, many people enjoy travelling to various destinations for vacation.  Some would like to spend their much needed break before finals or after APs completing their research projects. A great resource for a history, statistics or economics  project which involves the daily life of a country would be the website named Knoema.

Knoema provides country profiles, maps, country rankings, commodities of individual countries, and other topics of significant such as energy or national defense. All of these features on Knoema are free of charge and additionally, you can make a free account using your Google account. 

Country profiles are basically pages of each country which contain specific information regarding facets of daily life ranging  in subjects from the economy to crime to the environment. All of the information provided is statistically based  using trusted sources and because they only provide a statistical number, bias is limited and great for research. A good example of a global profile on Knoema would be the United States. 

All of the most important statistics are provided quickly and easily at the top of the profile. According to this profile statistically, the United States is quite a diverse nation.

Maps is another great feature of Knoema. Basically, Knoema has tons of statistics stored onto their servers for every nation. The maps features incorporate all of these statistics onto an easy to view map. These maps do not only apply to specific countries but also to individual states. This is great because it provides a more detailed view towards an issue because some nations such as the United States are quite large. 

Above is a color coordinated map  that shows the number of motor vehicles registered in each states. Several interpretations could be made by a raw, but simple map without any explanation. For example, the automobile industry is thriving in the mid-Atlantic where population is more dense than the Mid-Western states of North Dakota, South Dakota or Wyoming. A disclaimer for this argument is that an additional map with populations of each state would be more convincing. Click here to view a population map.

Knoema is a great resource for any student needing detailed data for research. The fact that explanations are limited is great because it limits bias. The raw, but simple statistics places the role of interpretation on the viewer and allows the viewer to explain his/her reasoning in a report without outside influences.