We investigated surface properties of metals by performing firstprinciples calculations. A systematic database was established for the surface relaxation, surface energy (), and surface stress () for metallic elements in the periodic table. The surfaces were modeled by multilayered slab structures along the direction of lowindex surfaces. The surface energy of simple metals decreases as the atomic number increases in a given group, while the surface stress has its minimum in the middle. The transition metal series show parabolic trends for both and with a dip in the middle. The dip occurs at half band filling due to a longrange Friedel oscillation of the surface charge density, which induces a strong stability to the Peirelslike transition. In addition, due to magnetic effects, the dips in the 3d metal series are shallower and deeper for and , respectively, than those of the 4d and 5d metals. The surface stress of the transition metals is typically positive, only Cr and Mn have a negative for the (100) surface facet, indicating that they are under compression. The light actinides have an increasing trend according to the atomic number. The present work provides a useful and consistent database for the theoretical modelling of surface phenomena.