Sources
Where the facts come from
Every fact on our atlas pages comes from one of these datasets, or is worked out from one by a rule we publish. No figure is typed in by hand and no prose is copied from anyone; the few choices made by hand are listed in our notes on the data.
- What we take from it
- Places: names in twelve languages, population, coordinates, time zones, elevation; countries' capitals, areas, calling codes and neighbours.
- Licence
- CC BY 4.0
- Credit
- Place data © GeoNames (geonames.org), CC BY 4.0.
- Retrieved 25 September 2026
- What we take from it
- Airports: codes, names, location, elevation, runways, and the town each serves.
- Licence
- Public domain
- Credit
- Airport data from OurAirports (ourairports.com), public domain.
- Retrieved 25 September 2026
- What we take from it
- Climate: the monthly mean temperature and daily range, rain, humidity, cloud and sunlight, 2001–2020.
- Credit
- These data were obtained from the NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC) POWER Project funded through the NASA Earth Science/Applied Science Program.
- Retrieved 25 September 2026
- What we take from it
- Driving side, plugs, mains voltage and frequency, emergency numbers, and which photograph shows a place.
- Licence
- CC0 1.0
- Credit
- Facts from Wikidata (wikidata.org), CC0.
- Retrieved 25 September 2026
- What we take from it
- Only identifiers: which Wikidata item a place is. No article text is used.
- Credit
- —
- Retrieved 25 September 2026
- What we take from it
- Photographs, each with its author, licence and a link to its page.
- Credit
- Each photograph's author and licence are printed beside it.
- Retrieved 25 September 2026
- What we take from it
- UN regions, official languages, legal tender, and the names of countries, regions, languages and currencies in each language.
- Licence
- Unicode License v3
- Credit
- Unicode CLDR data, © Unicode, Inc., Unicode License v3.
- Retrieved 25 September 2026
- What we take from it
- A country's map centre and outline box, and the land on our maps.
- Licence
- Public domain
- Credit
- Made with Natural Earth.
- Retrieved 25 September 2026
- What we take from it
- Countries' population, with its year.
- Licence
- CC BY 4.0
- Credit
- Population: World Bank, World Development Indicators (SP.POP.TOTL), CC BY 4.0.
- Retrieved 25 September 2026
- What we take from it
- Time zones, and the current time in each.
- Licence
- Public domain
- Credit
- —
- Retrieved 25 September 2026
- What we take from it
- The photographs on our hand-written guides.
- Licence
- Unsplash License
- Credit
- Photographs from Unsplash.