8 April 2016: The Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) released its annual statistical publication, the OECD Factbook 2015-2016. The Factbook provides statistical data on almost 100 indicators on population, economic production, household income and wealth, globalization, prices, energy and transportation, labor, environment and science, education, government and health. The Factbook reports data on all OECD countries and, where available, for Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Russia and South Africa.

The Factbook also provides data on metropolitan areas, and aggregate data for all OECD countries, the Eurozone and the EU. For each indicator, there is a detailed definition, an assessment of long-term trends, a list of other references, and links to download the relevant data.

In its readers’ guide, the Factbook highlights that, in contrast to the usual focus of media on short-term developments in employment, prices, gross domestic product (GDP) and other indicators, the text and charts in the publication mostly describe developments over at least a ten-year period, providing a good basis for comparing policy impacts. GDP is compared based on purchasing power parities (PPPs), which allows for a fairer comparison by eliminating differences in price levels.

As an example of its focus on trends and comparability, the Factbook reports that in the three years leading to 2014, population annual growth rates above 1% were recorded in Chile, Israel, Mexico and Turkey due to high birth rates, and in Australia, Canada, Luxembourg, Norway and Switzerland, due to high net immigration. Over the same period, the greatest declines yearly were in Portugal and Hungary, with Estonia, Greece, Japan and Spain also experiencing low population growth. [Publication: OECD Factbook 2015-2016] [Report Webpage]