Projection
The default world map uses Equal Earth, an equal-area projection. Relative mapped areas are correct, but shapes, distances and directions are not all preserved. Mercator is offered as a comparison and explanatory view.
Mapped country area
Country area is calculated on a sphere from Natural Earth boundary geometry using D3's spherical area function and an authalic Earth radius. The standard source is 1:50m geometry; Gibraltar, Tuvalu and the United States Minor Outlying Islands use the 1:10m geometry because they are absent from the 1:50m file. Values are rounded because generalized global boundaries do not support surveying precision.
Population and economic data
Population, GDP and life expectancy are imported from World Bank Open Data. Each metric retains its own reference year. Population change is calculated only for profiles with observations in both fixed endpoint years, 2000 and 2024, using (2024 value ÷ 2000 value − 1) × 100. We do not silently label an older value as current or mix unequal trend intervals.
Calculated density
Population density divides the displayed population by the displayed mapped area. It may differ from national figures that use land area, exclude water, or apply a different territorial definition.
Coverage
The directory contains 238 ISO-coded countries and territories with individually coded Natural Earth geometry. This includes all widely recognized sovereign states. A dependency merged into a parent-country geometry is not assigned a false independent outline or area.
Boundaries and disputed areas
Boundaries follow the selected upstream visualization dataset. Their display does not imply a legal or political position. Disputed and partially recognized entities require explicit notes rather than being silently treated as ordinary ISO geometries. Read the complete boundary, territory and place-naming policy.
See the exact upstream sources and licences on the data sources page.