databases of statistical information

United Nations

UNdata

This United Nations web page has databases with different kinds of demographic information for countries around the world.

World Bank

Data & Research

Online databases of national and international statistics.

CIA

CIA World Factbook - Guide to Country Comparisons

Generate charts comparing demographic data in different countries, downloadable as text files.

World Economic Forum

Reports

The World Economic Forum does reports on a wide range of global issues.

The Guardian

World Government Data

Government data from countries around the world compiled on The Guardian's website. Much of the data is available for download as Google Docs spreadsheets, and there's also an API for accessing the datasets.