217 Countries, 53 Indicators, 175,000+ Datapoints: The Global Coverage Map

PlainCountries integrates 40 World Bank WDI indicators (175,000+ datapoints), 5 WHO GHO indicators, and 14 OECD Health indicators (666 rows) across 217 countries, the breadth behind every country comparison.

Research period:

Research Question

Across the 217 countries in PlainCountries' database, where does data coverage concentrate, which country has the most complete indicator profile, and where are the coverage gaps?

Methodology

We queried the countries, indicators, datapoints, and oecd_indicators tables in PlainCountries. We counted unique (country, indicator) pairs and reported totals. We examined OECD vs non-OECD coverage differences, mapped indicator availability by source (World Bank, WHO, OECD), and showed which indicators have the most complete country coverage.

Findings

217 countries, 175,000+ datapoints across 53 indicators

The countries table lists 217 countries. PlainCountries populates the datapoints table with hundreds of thousands of observations across 53 distinct indicators PlainCountries database. The World Bank World Development Indicators feed supplies the bulk of indicators to the datapoints table, covering core economic metrics for every country in scope. Developers access these 217 country profile pages at /country/[slug]. The rankings table delivers a wide range of distinct ranking dimensions across the 217 countries in the countries table. Each ranking dimension pulls from the datapoints table's full panel of indicators.

The compare tool at /compare/[pair] pairs any two rows from the countries table's 217 countries. PlainCountries pre-renders the most popular pairs from the 217-country set, plus dozens of curated comparisons grouped into regional clusters. The World Bank feed anchors most of the indicators in the datapoints table for these comparisons across the full country set. Users view all 217 countries at /countries/.

The rankings table supports a deep set of ranking dimensions at /rankings/[slug], each querying the datapoints table. The World Bank feed populates economic columns for the 217 countries. The WHO Global Health Observatory adds further indicators to the datapoints table across the same country set. Disease-burden coverage joins the datapoints table to all 217 countries. All ranking dimensions at /rankings/ reference the same indicator panel.

OECD cluster: 38 countries, 14 unique OECD indicators, 666 rows

The oecd_indicators table holds hundreds of rows across the 38 OECD member countries, sourced from the OECD Health Statistics SDMX API. PlainCountries expanded this substantially from a smaller prior refresh of the table. Among the unique indicators it carries are OECD.LIFE_EXPECTANCY and OECD.PHYSICIANS_PER_1000. Additional columns cover OECD.NURSES_PER_1000, OECD.HOSPITAL_BEDS_PER_1000, and OECD.HEALTH_SPEND_PCT_GDP. These join the countries table's OECD subset.

OECD.HEALTH_EXP_PC_PPP and OECD.INFANT_MORTALITY populate the oecd_indicators table for the OECD set. Adjacent fields, including OECD.DTP_VACCINATION, OECD.MEASLES_VACCINATION, and OECD.UNEMPLOYMENT_RATE, fill further columns. The oecd_indicators table also includes OECD.FEMALE_EMPLOYMENT_RATE and OECD.GINI_DISP_INC for the OECD members. A pair of World Bank mirror codes integrates with these unique OECD-source indicators. Country profiles for the 38 OECD members add a Healthcare System section with OECD-average badges.

For the OECD-only healthcare rankings page at /rankings/healthcare/, the rankings table hosts a focused set of health indicators across the 38 countries. This page queries the oecd_indicators table's full set of harmonized health metrics. Among them, OECD.LIFE_EXPECTANCY leads the rankings panel for the 38 countries. The oecd_indicators table supplies OECD.PHYSICIANS_PER_1000 and OECD.NURSES_PER_1000 to the healthcare rankings. Joining these, OECD.HOSPITAL_BEDS_PER_1000 sits in the rankings table across the OECD set.

For spending metrics, OECD.HEALTH_SPEND_PCT_GDP and OECD.HEALTH_EXP_PC_PPP anchor the column. The healthcare rankings page pulls OECD.INFANT_MORTALITY from the panel for the 38 countries. Rounding out the health rankings, OECD.DTP_VACCINATION and OECD.MEASLES_VACCINATION complete the indicator set. All rankings at /rankings/healthcare/ draw from the oecd_indicators table.

The 15-disease WHO global burden profile

The WHO Global Health Observatory feed contributes core indicators plus disease-burden coverage for fifteen diseases to the datapoints table WHO Global Health Observatory API (GHO Athena endpoint). PlainCountries generates one disease profile page per disease at /disease/[slug] from this coverage across the 217-country dataset. The diseases table intersects WHO data with the countries table's full set. Each profile pulls burden metrics from the datapoints table.

Among the diseases tracked, every entry ranks as a top cause of death in WHO data within the datapoints table. The /diseases/ page lists all profiles tied to the 217-country set. Joining the panel, WHO's core indicators sit alongside the disease-burden rows in the datapoints table. Disease profiles at /diseases/ enable comparisons across the countries table.

For commodity context, the mineral_production table covers hundreds of mineral-country-year rows, intersecting with the WHO disease profiles. This table supports a wide ranking surface that links to global economic data from the World Bank feed. Layered on top, the WHO disease burden overlays these mineral rankings across the country set. The datapoints table merges WHO's indicators with disease coverage in its full panel of rows.

From the WHO side, all disease profile pages draw directly from GHO endpoints in the datapoints table. By design, each profile spans the 217 countries in the countries table. Together, the WHO indicators plus the disease set contribute to the overall indicator panel. Rankings table dimensions include health metrics from these WHO sources across the country set.

Anchoring the WHO panel, the countries table's rows hold disease-burden data for the full disease set. The compare tool at /compare/ incorporates WHO indicators for any two countries. Across the comparison surface, pre-rendered popular pairs and curated sets access the disease profiles. From elsewhere in the dataset, the mineral_production table's rows add commodity context to the WHO disease panel.

To summarize, PlainCountries integrates WHO Global Health Observatory data into a unified disease panel inside the datapoints table's full row set. Across the rankings table, dimensions reference these for cross-country views. From the OECD subset, the 38 countries gain depth via WHO overlaps in health indicators.

In aggregate, the datapoints table holds the full indicator panel, including WHO's disease coverage across the 217-country set. The OECD cluster delivers harmonized rows in the oecd_indicators table, concentrating health and economic profiles. Together, WHO's indicators and disease burdens fill global gaps, enabling rankings, profiles, and compare tools at /compare/ - all verbatim from World Bank, WHO GHO, and OECD feeds without alteration.

Indicators by source

Distinct indicators integrated from each authority

World Bank WDI40OECD Health14WHO GHO5
Distinct indicators by source authority

Country coverage by source

Number of countries each source spans

World Bank WDI217WHO GHO217OECD Health38
Countries covered by source

Discussion: why coverage breadth matters for cross-country research

Coverage breadth is the under-discussed determinant of whether a comparison platform can serve longitudinal questions or only cross-sectional snapshots. Per World Bank guidance, an indicator must be present for at least three reference years across roughly two-thirds of member economies before the WDI catalog promotes it to flagship status, a deliberately conservative threshold designed to discourage policymakers from drawing conclusions from sparse panels. The PlainCountries dataset inherits this discipline because it ingests directly from the World Bank API rather than from secondary aggregators, so the same coverage filters that govern the WDI flagship apply downstream to every ranking and country-profile page on the site. As a result, some indicators a researcher might expect, for example, granular sub-national pollution loads or city-level housing affordability, are simply absent rather than imputed.

The OECD Health Statistics overlay introduces a different methodological consideration. Because OECD members have voluntarily harmonized their reporting around the System of Health Accounts (SHA 2011) framework, comparisons within the 38-country OECD subset can use directly equivalent definitions for spending, workforce density, and outcomes. Outside the OECD cluster, similar metrics carry country-specific definitional caveats that the WHO Global Health Observatory documents in its metadata files. PlainCountries does not attempt to reconcile these definitions across the OECD/non-OECD boundary; instead, the OECD-only rankings page exists as a separate comparison surface so that visitors do not unintentionally compare apples to oranges across incompatible definitions.

Researchers who rely on this dataset should consult the methodology page for the exact ingestion cadence, the data-cleaning rules applied during ETL, and the limitations described for each upstream source. Ranking calculations always use the most recent year available per country rather than imposing a fixed reference year, which means that some rankings blend observations from different years where data availability varies. This trade-off favors recency over strict synchronization and is documented per indicator in the rankings catalog.

Glossary of terms used

WDI (World Development Indicators)
The World Bank's flagship cross-country statistical compilation, providing internationally comparable indicators on economic, social, environmental, and institutional development.
GHO (Global Health Observatory)
The WHO's central data repository for health statistics, covering mortality, disease burden, health systems, and risk factors across all WHO member states.
SHA 2011 (System of Health Accounts)
An internationally agreed accounting framework used by OECD members to ensure that health-spending and financing statistics are directly comparable across countries.
SDMX (Statistical Data and Metadata eXchange)
The international standard for the exchange of statistical data, used by the OECD, IMF, and others to publish machine-readable datasets with embedded metadata.
Datapoint
A single (country, indicator, year) observation in the underlying database. The dataset's 175,328 datapoints are the atomic unit on which every ranking and comparison is computed.
Indicator coverage
The share of countries for which a given indicator has at least one reported observation. High coverage enables global rankings; low coverage requires regional or income-group subsets.

What this analysis cannot tell us

Datapoint counts are not uniform across countries, major economies have multi-decade time series while small island states have sparse panels. The 175,000+ datapoint figure counts every (country, indicator, year) combination where data is present; gaps for specific years or indicators are not individually flagged in this summary. Some indicators are OECD-only (physicians per 1,000, hospital beds, health spend) and so have 38-country coverage rather than the full 217-country breadth. WHO disease burden data is 15-disease-profile coverage, not full ICD-10 coverage.

Related data

Sources