Where every number comes from

Total surface area including inland water bodies. Silhouettes are drawn with an equal-area projection centred on each country, at the same scale — unlike Mercator maps, which inflate countries far from the equator.

Total length of the boundary between land and sea, as reported by the CIA World Factbook. Coastline length depends on measurement scale (the coastline paradox), so compare orders of magnitude, not decimals.

Elevation of the highest point above sea level (CIA World Factbook).

Midyear estimate of all residents regardless of legal status or citizenship.

Population divided by land area (excluding inland water). Averages hide cities: most people live far denser than this.

Mean height of 19-year-old men in the latest estimate year, from the NCD Risk Factor Collaboration: a pooled analysis of measured (not self-reported) heights from 2,181 population-based studies. Height is close to final adult height by 19.

Mean height of 19-year-old women in the latest estimate year, from the NCD Risk Factor Collaboration: a pooled analysis of measured (not self-reported) heights from 2,181 population-based studies.

Half the population is older than this, half is younger (UN World Population Prospects).

Births per woman if she lived to the end of her childbearing years at current age-specific rates. ~2.1 keeps a population stable without migration.

Share of the population aged 65 or older.

Nobel Prize laureates born within the country’s present-day borders, per 10 million current residents. People only (organisations excluded), each person counted once, from the official Nobel Prize data (CC0). Birthplace is not the same as where the work was done. Countries under 1 million people are left out, because a single laureate would dominate the rate.

Number of official (or de facto national) languages listed in the mledoze/countries reference dataset. Many more languages are spoken in most countries.

Gross domestic product at current US dollars (market exchange rates). Good for global weight; for living standards see GDP per person (PPP).

GDP per person in international dollars at purchasing power parity: adjusted so a dollar buys roughly the same everywhere. Output per person, not household income.

Gini index, 0 = everyone earns the same, 100 = one person has everything. Based on household surveys; survey years differ by country.

Share of the labour force without work but available for and seeking employment (ILO modelled estimate).

Military expenditure as a share of GDP (SIPRI, via World Bank).

How far a US dollar goes: the general price level of goods and services compared with the United States (= 100), computed as GDP per person at market exchange rates ÷ GDP per person at purchasing-power parity (World Bank). This is the price level ratio of the PPP conversion factor to the exchange rate — an economy-wide measure, not an expat cost-of-living index for rents or city prices.

Current health expenditure per person, public and private, in US dollars (WHO Global Health Expenditure Database).

Years a newborn would live if current mortality patterns stayed the same throughout life (period life expectancy at birth).

Deaths before age one per 1,000 live births (UN Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation).

Medical doctors (generalists and specialists) per 1,000 people (WHO).

Share of adults with a body-mass index of 30 or more (crude estimate, adults 18+, WHO Global Health Observatory).

Share of adults (15+) who currently use any tobacco product (age-standardised, WHO).

Average answer to "imagine a ladder from 0 (worst possible life) to 10 (best possible life): where do you stand?" (Gallup World Poll, published in the World Happiness Report). A 3-year average, and a survey answer, not a measured index.

Recorded and unrecorded alcohol per person aged 15+ per year, in litres of pure alcohol (WHO). A three-year average around the year shown. Includes drinks bought by tourists, which lifts small holiday destinations.

Meat supply per person per year (FAO food balance sheets). Supply is what reaches shops, not what is eaten: waste is included.

Food energy available per person per day (FAO). Supply, not intake.

Average annual hours actually worked per worker (Penn World Table / Feenstra et al.).

Average number of years of education received by people aged 25 and older (UNDP Human Development Report).

International overnight visitor arrivals per resident (UN Tourism via Our World in Data), in the latest year from 2022 on, or the last pre-pandemic year where nothing later is published. Definitions differ slightly between countries.

Share of the population that used the internet in the last three months (ITU).

Share of the population with access to electricity (World Bank / SE4ALL).

Share of people living in urban areas as defined by national statistical offices. Definitions of "urban" differ between countries.

Mobile cellular subscriptions per 100 people (ITU). Can exceed 100 when people hold several SIM cards.

Length of railway route available for train service (World Bank, from UIC and national sources). Reporting is patchy; each country shows its latest year since 2010.

Air passengers carried by carriers registered in the country (domestic and international), per resident (ICAO via World Bank). Measures the airline industry, not how often residents themselves fly.

Forest area as a share of land area (FAO Global Forest Resources Assessment, via World Bank).

Annual fossil CO₂ emissions (fossil fuels and cement) per person, territorial basis (Global Carbon Budget). The cube shows the volume that mass of CO₂ occupies at 15 °C and sea-level pressure (1 tonne ≈ 534 m³).

Share of electricity generated from renewable sources: hydro, wind, solar, bioenergy, geothermal and other (Ember / Energy Institute).

Population-weighted mean annual exposure to fine particulate matter (PM2.5), from satellite-based estimates (Washington University SatPM). The WHO guideline is 5 µg/m³.

Intentional homicides per 100,000 people per year (UNODC). Homicide is the most comparable crime statistic between countries, because it is the least affected by differences in reporting.

Estimated road traffic deaths per 100,000 people per year (WHO Global status report on road safety 2023, SDG 3.6.1). WHO models the estimates to correct for under-reporting; the 2021 edition is the latest.

Mean annual near-surface air temperature averaged over the country’s land area over the last ten complete years (Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis).

Average annual precipitation over the last ten complete years, averaged over the country’s area (Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis).

UN Population Division, World Population Prospects, via World Bank WDI (SP.POP.*.5Y).

Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information (2026) – with major processing by Our World in Data. “Monthly average” [dataset]. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information, “ERA5 monthly averaged data on single levels from 1940 to present 2” [original data].

Ember (2026); Energy Institute – Statistical Review of World Energy (2026); Pinto et al. (2023); Department for Energy Security and Net Zero of the UK (2023) – with major processing by Our World in Data. “Share of electricity generated by coal” [dataset]. Ember, “Yearly Electricity Data Europe”; Ember, “Yearly Electricity Data”; Energy Institute, “Statistical Review of World Energy”; Pinto et al., “Global historical electricity”; Department for Energy Security and Net Zero of the UK, “UK electricity capacity and generation by fuel between 1920 and 2020” [original data].

Made with Natural Earth. Free vector and raster map data @ naturalearthdata.com.

CIA, The World Factbook. Final edition before discontinuation in February 2026.

mledoze/countries, Open Database License.