Accessible via the web address www.globalstat.eu, the portal was developed in partnership with the Global Governance programme of the European University Institute (EIU), which is based in the Italian city.
“We shared the intention of information being aggregated from different databases, which resulted in a free site that is easy and intuitive to access,” one of the technicians behind the project, Joana Martins, told Lusa News Agency.
The site is currently in English but other languages are planned.
The data available goes well beyond gross domestic product, with information on the environment, society and culture as well as economy and politics, presented in graphs and charts as well as raw numbers.
It is described by its founders as “a gateway to understanding development in a globalised world”.
The site draws on statistics covering 193 countries, from 1960 to the present day, arranged in 12 broad themes and three cross-cutting areas. They were gathered through 80 international organisations, which had certified the data.
The site uses the same technical structure as the FFMS’s own Pordata site on Portuguese statistics.
The FFMS was set up in 2009 by Alexandre Soares dos Santos of the Jerónimo Martins retail empire, with the aim of promoting studies and analyses on Portugal.
The EIU is a higher education institution that was founded in 1976 by six of the founding members of the then European Economic Community.