All data comes from the World Bank Open Data API and the WHO Global Health Observatory — two authoritative international organizations that collect and publish development statistics for all member countries. Both datasets are licensed under CC BY 4.0.

International development statistics require national reporting, regional aggregation, and international compilation before publication. This process typically introduces a 1–2 year lag. We display the year each value was measured alongside the data so you always know the reference period.

Data gaps reflect national reporting limitations, not errors on PlainCountries. Some smaller countries or conflict-affected states do not consistently report to the World Bank or WHO. When data is unavailable, we show that gap explicitly rather than interpolating from neighboring countries.

Rankings are pre-computed based on the latest available value for each country-indicator pair. Because the most recent year varies by country and indicator, rankings compare the best available data point for each country, which may be from slightly different years.

Yes. Country comparison pages show the most recent value for both countries across all available indicators, with side-by-side display and highlighting to make differences easy to read.

PlainCountries organizes its 45 indicators into seven topic areas: Demographics (population, age structure), Economics (GDP, income, trade), Education (enrollment, literacy), Health (life expectancy, mortality), Environment (emissions, water), Infrastructure (internet, electricity), and Governance (political stability, rule of law).

No. PlainCountries is an independent public information service built by Kiznis.Studio. We present World Bank and WHO open data in a more accessible format but are not affiliated with either organization.