A laboratory for asking complex questions of 194 nations across 150 years. Pick any two of more than a hundred indicators for the axes, layer three more onto the bubble ring, filter by region or theme, surface top and bottom N on any dimension, and watch how the answers move from 1900 to 2050.
The Civilisation Lab · v146
Methodology & Sources
This lab visualises authoritative data on 194 nations from 1900 to 2050. Every
time-varying indicator is sourced from a public, openly-licensed dataset and
ingested through an automated pipeline. Where a country lacks an observation
for a specific year, values are linearly interpolated between the nearest
available years; projections beyond the latest observation use modelled
trajectories grounded in regional baselines. Indicators flagged "2022 ref"
use a single anchor year. The full source registry is below.
Time-varying indicators
The following indicators are time-series, drawn from authoritative providers
and updated via an automated pipeline (see "Reproducibility" below). Coverage
is reported against the lab's 194-country set.
Indicator
Source
ID
Years
Coverage (of 194)
Indicators from secondary sources (2022 reference)
These indicators rely on aggregated or curated sources released annually, and
are referenced against 2022 with regional-trajectory modelling for earlier
years. We are working on extending these to full time-series in future
versions of the pipeline.
Indicator
Source
Notes
Human Development Index
UNDP Human Development Report 2024
HDI 2022 values, projected backwards using regional trajectories.
Gender Inequality Index
UNDP HDR 2024
GII 2022, trajectory-modelled history.
Tourism arrivals
UNWTO Tourism Statistics 2024
Annual international arrivals.
Democracy index
V-Dem Polyarchy 2024
0–1 polyarchy index.
Press freedom
RSF World Press Freedom Index 2024
Composite 0–100 score (higher = freer).
Refugee population
UNHCR 2024
Refugees hosted, end-of-year stock.
Internet freedom
Freedom House 2024
0–100 composite score.
Social Progress Index
SPI 2024
0–100 composite welfare score.
Economic Complexity Index
Harvard Atlas 2023
ECI rank-based complexity score.
PM 2.5 exposure
WB / IHME
Annual mean μg/m³ population-weighted exposure.
Vehicles per 1000
OICA / WB
Motor vehicles in use.
Maternal mortality
WB / WHO
Maternal deaths per 100,000 live births.
Energy use per capita
IEA / OWID
Primary energy consumption, kWh/cap.
Migration stock
UN DESA
International migrant stock.
Oil / gas / steel production
EIA / IEA / World Steel
National production, historically anchored.
Reproducibility
The time-varying dataset is generated by a single Python script that pulls
directly from the providers' public APIs (World Bank Open Data REST API,
Our World in Data Grapher CSV exports). The script outputs a single
real_data.js file in the format
{ ISO3: { year: value, ... } } per indicator. Running it
against the current upstream data takes about ten minutes and is fully
deterministic. The pipeline and notebook are linked from the project's
GitHub repository.
Data types & interpolation
Observed — collected at the source. Cyan markers on the chart and timeline. The chart trusts these values directly.Interpolated — linear or log interpolation between two known observed years. Pale dots. Used where annual coverage is sparse.Illustrative trajectory — shown post-observation (typically beyond 2022) to extend the visual pattern. Not a forecast. Dashed outline. Conservative trend extrapolation, capped where data physics demand (e.g., life expectancy capped at +0.08 years/year over the last observation).
Before earliest observation: linear ramp from a regional
baseline (e.g., life expectancy ≈ 30 in Africa, ≈ 45 in Europe circa
1900) to the first observed value, when needed to populate 1900 onwards.
Licensing & citation
All source datasets are released under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
International (CC-BY-4.0) license. This lab inherits that license for
its data layer; the code is released under MIT.
Cervantes Grau, O. (2026). The Civilisation Lab v146.
Data: World Bank Open Data (CC-BY-4.0); Our World in Data (CC-BY-4.0);
UNDP HDR; V-Dem; RSF; UNHCR; Freedom House; UNWTO; IHME; OICA; IEA.
Two ways to begin · pick a path
BSTORYbuild your own — pick a theme, the lab configures axes & rings
COUTLIERShover a category to see its studies — click a card to load the full setup
DMAXIMAL CORRELATIONSclick a card to load a combination with a clear visual pattern — top/mid/bot clouds reveal the structure
YEAR1900
—
Population—
X axis—
Y axis—
Ring—
Year shown—
SELECTION leaders / laggers
Tap a VISUAL FILTER letter to see top & bottom country here.
19001950200020222050
⌃ historical events on timeline ·universal
VISUAL FILTERS · highlights top, bottom & mid countries per indicator+5−5|•5
CORE
ENV
WELL
STATE
COMMODITIES
ECON
INDUSTRY
CARE
ACCESS
DEMO
Suggested · matches X / Y axes
READING THE CHART1900
Pick two indicators on the left and press play to watch how the answers move from 1900 to 2050.
THE WORLD IN TWO DIMENSIONS
GDP × CO₂
Median split on each axis. Countries closest to the corners — far from the global trend.