Source

Our data is gathered from official sources such as the United Nations, the World Bank, the CIA World Factbook, and national statistics agencies, as well as from credible private organizations like research institutes and think tanks. We update it regularly so you always have the most accurate information about countries around the world.

HDI - Human Development Index

The Human Development Index (HDI) is a composite statistic used to measure and compare the overall well-being of people in different countries, combining indicators of health (life expectancy), education (mean and expected years of schooling), and standard of living (gross national income per capita). It is compiled and published annually by the Human Development Report Office within the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), under the editorial oversight of the United Nations General Assembly to ensure its independence and credibility. The HDI draws upon the latest data from a wide range of reputable public international organizations—such as the World Health Organization, UNESCO, and the World Bank—and is frequently used by national and regional analysts to inform policy debates and track progress over time.

https://hdr.undp.org/data-center/human-development-index#/indicies/HDI

International Monetary Growth by IMF - International Monetary Fund

GDP - Growth Domestic Product

https://www.imf.org/external/datamapper/NGDP_RPCH@WEO/OEMDC/ADVEC/WEOWORLD

EF English Proficiency Index (EPI)

The EF English Proficiency Index (EF EPI), produced by EF Education First, measures how well adults around the world speak English based on a free online test. In the 2024 edition, 2.1 million self-selected test-takers in 2023 from 116 countries (each with at least 400 participants) were ranked on a 0–600 scale. Scores are grouped as:

  • 600 and above
  • 550–599
  • 500–549
  • 450–499
  • Below 450

https://www.ef.com/wwen/epi/

download the EPI 2024 report here

GPI - Global Peace Index

The Global Peace Index is produced by the Institute for Economics & Peace, a global think tank that measures peace and its economic benefits. It uses 23 indicators in three main areas to score a country’s “negative peace” (the absence of violence or fear of violence). The first area, ongoing domestic and international conflict, has six measures that look at a country’s involvement in internal or external fights and how long they last. The second area, societal safety and security, uses eleven measures to check crime rates, terrorist activity, violent protests, political stability, relations with neighbors, and how many people are displaced or become refugees. The third area, militarization, has six measures to track military spending as a share of GDP, the number of armed service members per person, and contributions to UN peacekeeping. This single score lets us compare how peaceful different countries are.

The index uses a ranking scale from 1 (most peaceful) to 5 (least peaceful), and these values are aggregated into a single composite score to compare the peacefulness of different countries.

https://www.economicsandpeace.org/global-peace-index/

ILGA World - with UN ECOSOC status

ILGA World has ECOSOC consultative status at the United Nations (https://esango.un.org/civilsociety/showProfileDetail.do?method=showProfileDetails&profileCode=3497). ILGA World – the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association – is a worldwide federation of more than 1,900 organisations from over 160 countries and territories campaigning for lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and intersex human rights.

https://database.ilga.org/en

Henley Passport Index

The Henley Passport Index uses information from the International Air Transport Association (IATA) to show which passports offer the most travel freedom around the world, based on how many places citizens can visit without needing a visa.

The index reviews 199 passports and checks how many of 227 destinations (including countries, territories, and regions) each passport holder can access without applying for a visa in advance. https://www.iata.org/en/services/compliance/timatic/
https://www.henleyglobal.com/passport-index/ranking

PS: Not every place issues passports, so there are more destinations than passports in the ranking.

People

Portuguese People

Some images and content in the Portugal article sourced from: Portugueses Wikimedia Commons

Arab League

Arab League, Muslim-Majority Countries, and more sources:

Francophone world

This section uses three main sources. The first is the International Organisation of La Francophonie, which gives official facts about its members, budget, and projects. The second is France’s Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs, where speeches and policy papers explain France’s role in the Francophone world. The third is the think-tank Trends Research & Advisory, whose studies track how the number of French speakers is growing, especially in Africa. Together, these sources provide the data and background used in both the “Francophone World” and “France” articles.

Deserts of the World

Where we got our information for the "Deserts of the World" article: These sources provided facts about desert types, locations, sizes, and climate conditions.

Natural Earth

The country borders, regions, rivers, lakes and city points on our world maps come from Natural Earth, a free map dataset made by cartographers and supported by the North American Cartographic Information Society. Natural Earth is in the public domain.
https://www.naturalearthdata.com/

GEBCO - General Bathymetric Chart of the Oceans

The sea floor and the relief of large areas on our maps come from the GEBCO 2026 Grid. GEBCO works under the International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) and the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO. Source: GEBCO Compilation Group (2026) GEBCO 2026 Grid.
https://www.gebco.net/

OpenStreetMap

The coastlines on our detailed maps come from OpenStreetMap, a world map built by volunteers. Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors, available under the Open Database License (ODbL).
https://www.openstreetmap.org/copyright

NASADEM - NASA

The land heights on our detailed maps and height charts come from NASADEM, made by NASA. NASA does not endorse this website.
https://www.earthdata.nasa.gov/

HydroLAKES

The lakes and reservoirs on our detailed world maps come from HydroLAKES, version 1.0. Messager, M.L., Lehner, B., Grill, G., Nedeva, I., Schmitt, O. (2016): Estimating the volume and age of water stored in global lakes using a geo-statistical approach. Nature Communications 7: 13603. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0.
https://www.hydrosheds.org/hydrolakes

Global Dam Watch

This product incorporates data from the GDW database © Global Dam Watch (2024). Lehner, B. et al. (2024): The Global Dam Watch database of river barrier and reservoir information for large-scale applications. Scientific Data. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0.
https://www.globaldamwatch.org/

GeoNames

Some names of rivers, streams, lakes, reservoirs and dams on our detailed world maps come from GeoNames, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution. Other names come from Wikidata (public domain, CC0).
https://www.geonames.org/

The World Bank

Population figures and population history charts: The World Bank: Population, total (SP.POP.TOTL): United Nations Population Division, national statistical offices. License: CC BY 4.0. Shown as a chart.
https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.POP.TOTL

Flags - flag-icons

The country flags on our pages come from flag-icons by Panayiotis Lipiridis, a free set of SVG flags. Copyright (c) 2013 Panayiotis Lipiridis, used under the MIT License.
https://flagicons.lipis.dev/
MIT License

Coats of arms - Wikimedia Commons

The coats of arms on our country pages come from Wikimedia Commons, the free media library of the Wikimedia Foundation, and are in the public domain. A coat of arms is shown here as information about the country and does not mean the site is linked to its government.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/

Wikidata

Area, highest and lowest points, population and other facts on our country and region pages come from Wikidata, the free knowledge base of the Wikimedia Foundation. Wikidata is in the public domain (CC0).
https://www.wikidata.org/

Flags - flag-icons

The country flags on our pages come from flag-icons by Panayiotis Lipiridis, a free set of SVG flags. Copyright (c) 2013 Panayiotis Lipiridis, used under the MIT License.
https://flagicons.lipis.dev/
MIT License

Coats of arms - Wikimedia Commons

The coats of arms on our country pages come from Wikimedia Commons, the free media library of the Wikimedia Foundation, and are in the public domain, except the files listed below. A coat of arms is shown here as information about the country and does not mean the site is linked to its government.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/

Coats of arms and flags under a Creative Commons licence

These files are shown unchanged, with their author and licence:

Wikidata

Area, highest and lowest points, population and other facts on our country, region and city pages come from Wikidata, the free knowledge base of the Wikimedia Foundation. Wikidata is in the public domain (CC0).
https://www.wikidata.org/