The Fire Computer

Standing record/Canada · 50 measures/Layer 1 — reported values · ranks computed/Built 2026-09-18

Where Canada stands.

50 published measures. On each one, Canada is placed against every economy that reported the same measure in the same year — and the rows are ordered by that placing, lowest first. On 22 of them this page also draws a line at the best tenth of the rich world and prints the distance to it. On the other 28 it draws nothing, and says why.

Measures
50
Each ranked inside one common year against 81–217 economies.
Below the middle
12
Measures where more than half of the field reports a larger number than Canada.
Median position
79%
The middle of Canada’s own 50 percentiles. 50% would be an exactly average country.
In the top tenth
14
Measures where Canada’s number is larger than 90% of the field — on any reading of larger.
Read the order before you read the table. The rows run from the measure where Canada’s number sits lowest in its field to the one where it sits highest. That ordering is an editorial decision and it is this page’s only one: an accountability instrument that opens with its subject’s best result is a brochure. It is not a claim that the top of this table is where Canada is failing.
Rank here is position by size, highest first, on every row. Nothing is flipped so that a number reads as an achievement, which means a low position is not the same thing as a bad outcome and the page will not pretend otherwise. Canada is 76th of 133 on intentional homicide and 206th of 215 on population density; both sit near the top of this page and neither is a defeat. Canada is 13th of 203 on CO₂ per person, which sits near the bottom of this page and is not a victory. The order is a reading order. The judgement is yours, and the query is printed so you can make it somewhere else.

Every measure, lowest standing first

Rank carries its denominator in the same cell, because 60th of 81 and 192nd of 217 are not the same standing and a count in a neighbouring column can be read past. Pos is the share of that year’s reporting economies with a value lower than Canada’s — the only column here comparable across rows, and the column this table is sorted on. It carries no direction. The line is the value one tenth of the way in from whichever end that row’s aim points at, counted not across the whole field but across the high income economies inside it that have at least 1.5M people, and at the line is the economy holding it, printed with its own population under its name so the comparison can be sized. Neither narrowing touches the rank, which is against everyone who reported. Gap is the change in Canada’s own value that would reach the line and Places is how far that would move Canada in that row’s ranking — not in this table, which is ordered by Pos. It reads up for a row aimed high and down for a row aimed low, because the rank is position by size on every row and is never turned around: reaching Norway’s infant mortality moves Canada further from first place, and first place on that row is South Sudan. An em dash in those four columns means this page draws no line on that row; 28 of the 50 are like that and the four tests are directly below the table. Every measure name links to the series it came from.

Measure Rank Pos Canada Year The
line		 Gap Places At the line Highest
Population densitypeople per km² · Energy and land 206of 215 4% 4.6 2023 — — — — Macao SAR, China
Births per womanover a lifetime · People 192of 217 12% 1.25 2024 — — — — Chad
GDP per person, growth% a year · Money and work 144of 186 23% 0.8% 2025 — — — — Guyana
Infant mortalityper 1,000 live births · Health and safety 148of 196 25% 4.7 2024 2.0 −57% −39 Norway5.6M South Sudan
Income inequality, Gini0 to 100 · Money and work 60of 81 26% 31.1 2021 26.2 −16% −17 Czechia10.9M Colombia
Inflation% a year · Money and work 110of 165 34% 2.1% 2025 — — — — Iran, Islamic Rep.
Tax revenue% of GDP · The state 79of 128 39% 14.0% 2021 — — — — Naoero
Military spending% of GDP · The state 90of 147 39% 1.31% 2024 — — — — Ukraine
Manufacturing% of GDP · Making things 114of 189 40% 9.3% 2022 19.9% +114% +91 Slovenia2.1M Puerto Rico (US)
Intentional homicideper 100,000 people · Health and safety 76of 133 43% 1.82 2019 0.36 −80% −50 Kuwait4.9M Jamaica
Exports% of GDP · Trade 95of 172 45% 32.5% 2024 — — — — Luxembourg
Hospital bedsper 1,000 people · Health and safety 68of 125 46% 2.6 2021 — — — — Korea, Rep.
Population growth% a year · People 104of 217 52% 0.94% 2025 — — — — United Arab Emirates
Youth unemployment% of ages 15–24 · Money and work 85of 182 54% 13.8% 2025 6.5% −53% −61 United Arab Emirates11.5M Djibouti
Physiciansper 1,000 people · Health and safety 63of 136 54% 2.42 2020 4.55 +88% +52 Spain49.4M Cuba
Fixed investment% of GDP · Making things 75of 165 55% 22.9% 2024 27.8% +21% +44 Japan123M Bhutan
Renewables in energy used% of final consumption · Energy and land 96of 212 55% 23.8% 2021 44.0% +85% +41 Latvia1.8M Congo, Dem. Rep.
Foreign investment received% of GDP · Trade 83of 192 57% 2.8% 2024 — — — — Malta
Labour force participation% of ages 15+ · Money and work 68of 182 63% 64.5% 2025 70.4% +9% +42 New Zealand5.3M Qatar
Suicideper 100,000 people · Health and safety 60of 185 68% 9.4 2021 3.3 −65% −90 Panama4.6M Lesotho
Unemployment% of labour force · Money and work 58of 182 69% 6.9% 2025 2.2% −68% −105 Kuwait4.9M Eswatini
Public spending on education% of GDP · People 52of 164 69% 4.8% 2022 — — — — Kiribati
Tertiary enrolment% of the age group · People 36of 128 72% 76.3% 2023 — — — — Greece
High-technology exports% of manufactured exports · Making things 41of 160 75% 16.4% 2023 — — — — Hong Kong SAR, China
Research and development% of GDP · Making things 21of 88 77% 1.87% 2021 3.41% +82% +16 Belgium11.9M Israel
Electricity from renewables% of output · Energy and land 41of 204 80% 67.0% 2021 79.9% +19% +13 Austria9.2M Bhutan
Bachelor’s degree or higher% of ages 25+ · People 20of 105 82% 32.4% 2022 38.4% +19% +15 Ireland5.5M United Arab Emirates
Internet users% of population · Connection 33of 182 82% 94.4% 2024 99.7% +6% +28 Kuwait4.9M Bahrain
Populationpeople · People 38of 217 83% 41,651,653 2025 — — — — India
People aged 65 and over% of population · People 37of 217 83% 20.3% 2025 — — — — Monaco
Researchers in R&Dper million people · Making things 14of 82 84% 5,624 2022 8,639 +54% +10 Sweden10.6M Korea, Rep.
Life expectancy at birthyears · Health and safety 34of 217 85% 82.1 2024 84.0 +2% +24 Japan123M Monaco
Output per workerconstant 2021 PPP $ · Making things 26of 168 85% $113,563 2025 $156,983 +38% +17 United States342M Luxembourg
GDP per person, price-adjustedconstant 2021 intl $ · Money and work 24of 185 88% $57,990 2025 $85,732 +48% +17 Switzerland9.1M Singapore
GDP per personcurrent US$ · Money and work 21of 186 89% $55,698 2025 $90,027 +62% +14 United States342M Luxembourg
Patent applications, residentsapplications · Making things 13of 113 89% 4,710 2021 — — — — China
Military spending, totalcurrent US$ · The state 16of 151 90% $29.3B 2024 — — — — United States
Fixed broadbandper 100 people · Connection 18of 206 92% 42.2 2022 44.9 +6% +7 Denmark6.0M Gibraltar
Air passengers carriedpassengers · Connection 13of 149 92% 88,618,000 2023 — — — — United States
Health spending per personcurrent US$ · Health and safety 15of 191 93% $6,187 2023 — — — — United States
Merchandise exportscurrent US$ · Trade 15of 205 93% $554.7B 2025 — — — — China
Health spending% of GDP · Health and safety 13of 192 94% 11.2% 2023 — — — — Tuvalu
CO₂ per persontonnes · Energy and land 13of 203 94% 14.01 2024 3.57 −74% −69 Sweden10.6M Palau
The whole economycurrent US$ · Money and work 10of 186 95% $2.32T 2025 — — — — United States
Scientific articlesarticles · Making things 10of 197 95% 63,720 2023 — — — — China
Renewable fresh water per personcubic metres · Energy and land 6of 181 97% 73,170 2022 — — — — Iceland
Net migrationpeople · People 5of 217 98% 326,204 2025 — — — — Ukraine
Land areakm², lakes excluded · Energy and land 4of 215 99% 8,788,700 2023 — — — — Russian Federation
Arable land per personhectares · Energy and land 3of 206 99% 0.95 2023 — — — — Kazakhstan
Forestkm² · Energy and land 3of 213 99% 3,468,171 2023 — — — — Russian Federation
Highest is the economy with the largest value that year. Largest is not best on any of these rows and is plainly the worst on several; the column is the top of a list and nothing more. Five columns do not sort: the two value columns because a column holding dollars, years, hectares and tonnes has no order to be put in, and the three line columns because more than half their cells are empty and sorting mostly-absent columns produces a ranking of which rows this page was willing to draw a target on. Rank does sort, and sorting it is the reading this page argues against: it puts 60th of 81 beside 192nd of 217 as though they were the same standing. Sorting Pos ascending restores the written order.
Why 28 of the 50 rows have no line, and why the 22 that do are measured against a smaller group. A line is a claim that a country should be somewhere it is not. The rank above it is not a claim at all — it is a position in a list. So the two are built to different standards, and this page makes the claim on 22 rows only. A row gets a line when all four hold: it is a rate, a share or a per-person figure, because a count ranks countries by how big they are and “be larger” is not a policy; it is not a rate of change, because the distance between two annual rates is a year rather than an ambition; it is not an endowment, because no policy makes a country wetter, flatter or less empty; and the direction is one this page will defend out loud. Spending fails that last test — health, education, defence and tax are inputs whose direction is the argument, and quietly assuming one would be taking the side this site says it does not take.

None of that was reasoned out in advance. It was learned by getting the same thing wrong three times, and all three are recorded here rather than quietly fixed, because a page that audits a country and edits its own history is not worth reading. The first build drew a line at the world’s top tenth on all 50 rows, and under a column headed gap it told a reader that Canada should raise infant mortality +828% to reach Burkina Faso and its homicide rate +1,183% to reach Colombia. The second build fixed the direction but still drew from the whole world, and told the same reader to cut emissions per person −99% to reach Uganda and unemployment −69% to reach United Arab Emirates. Every figure in both sentences is arithmetically correct and is computed live, from this page’s own data, to appear in this paragraph. None of them is an ambition: the last two describe Uganda’s income and how the Emirates count guest workers. So the line is now drawn inside the high income group, which the World Bank defines and Canada belongs to, while the rank stays against every economy that reported.

That was still not enough, which is the third time this page got the same thing wrong. Income alone put the carbon line on the British Virgin Islands at 2.33 tonnes a person — 40,000 people and no industry — and the physicians line on Andorra at 4.59, a country of 83,000. So the reference class also has a floor of 1.5M people, which removes 64 of the 217 economies from the target and none of them from any rank. That floor is this page’s own number and not the Bank’s. It is not a rule that can be pushed much further without becoming a list of countries somebody disliked, so it stops there, and instead every peer this page names is printed with its population beside it. Three of the 22 lines are held by economies that clear both tests and are still not Canada’s situation — Kuwait’s unemployment counts guest workers who lose their residency with the job. The head count is there so a reader can discount those rows without being instructed to.
Every direction call on this page, named. Larger is the aim on 15: Manufacturing · Physicians · Fixed investment · Renewables in energy used · Labour force participation · Research and development · Electricity from renewables · Bachelor’s degree or higher · Internet users · Researchers in R&D · Life expectancy at birth · Output per worker · GDP per person, price-adjusted · GDP per person · Fixed broadband. Smaller is the aim on 7: Infant mortality · Income inequality, Gini · Intentional homicide · Youth unemployment · Suicide · Unemployment · CO₂ per person. The remaining 28 carry a rank and a percentile and no target at all, each for a stated reason rather than a shrug. 8 because they are counts, and ranking counts largely ranks countries by how big they are: Population · Patent applications, residents · Military spending, total · Air passengers carried · Merchandise exports · The whole economy · Scientific articles · Net migration. 3 because they are rates of change, and the distance between two annual rates is a year rather than an ambition: GDP per person, growth · Inflation · Population growth. 5 because they are endowments, and no policy makes a country wetter, flatter or less empty: Population density · Renewable fresh water per person · Land area · Arable land per person · Forest. 1 because the series can exceed 100% by construction, so a decile on it is not a number anything can aim at: Tertiary enrolment. 11 because the direction of better is contested and this page will not assume one quietly: Births per woman · Tax revenue · Military spending · Exports · Hospital beds · Foreign investment received · Public spending on education · High-technology exports · People aged 65 and over · Health spending per person · Health spending. These are judgements, they are this page’s and not the World Bank’s, and they are listed individually so the disagreement can be with one row rather than with the table. Military spending is the clearest case against the machinery here: Canada is 90th of 147 at 1.31% of GDP and the figure it has committed to is 2%, which is not the top-decile line and cannot be reached by this page’s arithmetic, so the row carries no line rather than a target this page made up. A correction is the route if one of these calls is wrong.
Where the high placings are, counted. Canada is in the top tenth of the field on 14 of the 50 measures here, and 6 of those 14 are tagged Energy and land or People — land, forest, fresh water, arable hectares, migration, the size of the economy that sits on top of them. It is below the middle of the field on 12, and 5 of those 12 are tagged Making things, Money and work or Trade. The tags are printed on every row, so a reader who groups them differently can recount it. The page does not draw a conclusion from that split; it is the split.
The two ends of the page. Canada’s lowest placing of the 50 is population density — 4.6 people per km², 206th of 215 in 2023, above 4% of the field. Its highest is forest — 3,468,171 km², 3rd of 213 in 2023, above 99%. Both are on this page for the same reason: they are in the series.
3 of these rows are a rate of change, not a level. gdp per person, growth, inflation, population growth — each one a single year’s figure, and each one the most volatile kind of number on this page. They are here because they are published on the same basis for every country in the field, and they should be read as one year rather than as a trend. The year is in the row.

The gap, as a number

Rule 09 of this site’s design says a count with no future in it is a coroner’s report. So here is the future stated as arithmetic, on the four measures the “could Canada be a superpower” argument actually runs on: what an hour of Canadian work produces, what the country puts back into itself, what it spends finding things out, and what share of what it sells the world it invented. All four are rows where this page names larger as the aim, so the target on each is the same mechanical thing — the value one tenth of the way down the high income economies over 1.5M people reporting that row in that row’s own year. The peer is computed, not chosen. It is whichever economy happens to hold that position, and its population is printed with it, which is why a few of the 22 lines on this page are held by countries nobody would have picked.

  1. Manufacturing % of GDP · 2022 · NV.IND.MANF.ZS

    Canada reports 9.3% and stands 114th of 189. The line — one tenth of the way into the 45 high income economies that reported in 2022 — is 19.9%, held by Slovenia (2.1M people), which stands 23rd in the full field. The distance is 10.6% — +114% on today’s value — and closing it moves Canada up 91 places.

  2. Fixed investment % of GDP · 2024 · NE.GDI.FTOT.ZS

    Canada reports 22.9% and stands 75th of 165. The line — one tenth of the way into the 45 high income economies that reported in 2024 — is 27.8%, held by Japan (123M people), which stands 31st in the full field. The distance is 4.9% — +21% on today’s value — and closing it moves Canada up 44 places.

  3. Research and development % of GDP · 2021 · GB.XPD.RSDV.GD.ZS

    Canada reports 1.87% and stands 21st of 88. The line — one tenth of the way into the 44 high income economies that reported in 2021 — is 3.41%, held by Belgium (11.9M people), which stands 5th in the full field. The distance is 1.54% — +82% on today’s value — and closing it moves Canada up 16 places.

  4. Output per worker constant 2021 PPP $ · 2025 · SL.GDP.PCAP.EM.KD

    Canada reports $113,563 and stands 26th of 168. The line — one tenth of the way into the 46 high income economies that reported in 2025 — is $156,983, held by United States (342M people), which stands 9th in the full field. The distance is $43,420 — +38% on today’s value — and closing it moves Canada up 17 places.

None of these four is a forecast and none of them has a date on it. They are distances: what the same measurement would read if the country closed them, and how many places that is worth. Nothing on this page claims a route.

What to do with this

Rule 10: the action has to be as sourced as the number above it. None of these is a campaign and none of them collects anything.

  • Re-run it. Every row is one public request with no key. https://api.worldbank.org/v2/country/all/indicator/EN.POP.DNST?format=json&per_page=20000&mrv=25 returns the series behind the first row of the table. Swap the code for any other in the source list below. Drop every row whose region.id is NA before you rank anything, or you will be ranking Canada against the OECD.
  • Read the page that argues the other side. Compared puts thirty of these same series either side of a line with the United States, where several of the standings on this page read completely differently. 2067 runs Canada’s population forward instead of across. Homes is the one page here that already does what rule 09 asks and lets you edit its inputs.
  • Check whether the House is arguing about it. Canada is 75th of 165 on fixed investment and 114th of 189 on manufacturing as a share of the economy. Phrases counts how often the Commons says “productivity”, by year, against a denominator tested for stability; the same page counts “internal trade barriers”. Whether the numbers above are ever said out loud in the chamber is itself in the public record, and that is where it is counted.
  • Quote it with its denominator. If you take one figure off this page into an argument, take the whole cell: the rank, the count, and the year. The thinnest field here is 81 economies and the widest is 217; a position in the first is a much smaller claim than the same position in the second, and dropping the count is how a true number becomes a false one.
  • Tell us it is wrong. Every figure above is one API call away from being checked, and this site publishes its errors on a page with numbered entries and no delete key. If a row here resolves to a year you can show is wrong, or a field you can show is contaminated, that is a correction and it gets published as one.

Method

Source. Every figure is from the World Bank Indicators API v2, which is public, free and needs no key. Nothing here is estimated, re-based or adjusted by this page. The only values this page computes are ranks, percentiles, the decile line and the differences between them — all of them from the numbers as published.

Ranked against economies, not aggregates. country/all returns “World”, “OECD members”, “Euro area” and about forty more groupings carrying country-shaped codes. They are excluded by the Bank’s own region field, leaving 217 economies. Leaving them in would push every country on this page down by as many places as there were aggregates above it.

Rank is position by size, highest first, always. Never flipped. Ties take the same rank and the next rank is skipped. The design does not colour any of it: rule 04 of this site’s design says the picture is never allowed to make a number look good or bad, and a page that tinted the homicide row green would be grading while claiming to count.

The year is per row, and the field has to have turned up. Each row resolves to one year, printed in the row. Taking simply the most recent year Canada reports would be wrong here in a way it is not on /vs: with only one country to satisfy, the latest year is often one in which a dozen countries have filed and Canada is one of them, which would print a rank against the world that was a rank against a dozen early filers. So a year qualifies only if it carries at least 60 reporting economies and at least 85% of the largest field that series reached in the 25-year window, and is no older than 2012. Every row on this page clears all three; a measure that could not was removed before publication rather than published thin, and the generator throws rather than shipping one.

Position, not rank, is the sort key. Pos is (n − rank) ÷ (n − 1), the share of that year’s field below Canada. Raw rank is not comparable between a row with 81 reporters and a row with 217; position is. The table is sorted on it ascending, and the rows retain their own rank and count so the ordering can be checked.

The line, and the 28 rows that do not get one. The line is drawn inside the high income group rather than the whole field, and then only across the economies in it with at least 1.5M people: 33–47 economies depending on the row, Canada always among them. The income classification is the Bank’s own, unmodified; the population floor is this page’s and removes 64 of the 217 economies from the target only. The line sits one tenth of the way into what is left, rounded up — 5th of 47 on the widest row — counted from the top for a row aimed high and from the bottom for a row aimed low. The rank is not narrowed and never has been: it is against every economy that reported, all 217 of them on the widest row. Gap is (line − Canada) ÷ |Canada| and Places is Canada’s rank minus the line’s rank, which is negative on a row aimed low because the rank itself is never turned around. The peer named at the line is whichever economy sits there in the same sorted vector the rank came from; no peer on this page was chosen by anyone. A line is drawn on 22 of the 50 rows and the four tests for drawing one, plus every direction call this page makes, are printed above the table rather than here, because a rule that decides what the reader is shown belongs beside the thing it decided.

What this page is not measuring. There is no composite, no index and no total. The 50 rows are not weighted against each other, and adding them would mean deciding how much a hospital bed is worth in patents. The World Bank has no house-price or housing-starts series at this coverage, so housing is absent here and lives on /homes from Canadian sources instead. Three things the superpower argument wants most — permitting time, interprovincial trade friction and industrial electricity price — have no comparable international series at all. That is a real limit on this page rather than a tidy one, and it is the reason the rows below the table exist.

The four measures in the gap section are a selection, and a selection is an argument. The 50 rows in the table are not: they are every series that cleared the thresholds. Picking four of them to write sentences about is a claim about which measures the country’s future runs on, it is made by this page, and it can be disagreed with by picking four others from the same table. The arithmetic in those four blocks would be identical whichever four were picked.

Series considered and left off

Choosing what to measure is the political act on a page like this one, so here is the selection rather than only the result. Every one of these resolved cleanly under the same thresholds. None was removed for what it said about Canada — two of them place Canada well below the middle of the field.

  • Mobile subscriptions per 100 people — IT.CEL.SETS.P2. It counts active SIMs, not people. Second SIMs are normal in markets with prepaid-heavy tariffs and rare in Canada, so the international spread measures tariff design rather than how connected a country is. Fixed broadband and internet-user share are on the page in its place.
  • R&D technicians per million people — SP.POP.TECH.RD.P6. Under the coverage threshold it resolves to 2015 — the oldest year anything on this page would carry, and the only year in which the series reached its own best field. Researchers per million covers the same ground seven years later.
  • Trade, both directions, % of GDP — NE.TRD.GNFS.ZS. Exports as a share of GDP is already on the page and the two move together. Both are also inflated for small re-export economies, which is a limit on the row that is here as much as on the one that is not.
  • Gross capital formation, % of GDP — NE.GDI.TOTL.ZS. Differs from fixed investment, which is on the page, only by the change in inventories. Two rows for one argument.
  • GNI per person, price-adjusted — NY.GNP.PCAP.PP.CD. Tracks GDP per person price-adjusted, which is on the page, closely enough that they rank within a few places of each other.
  • Surface area — AG.SRF.TOTL.K2. The series counts, in the Bank’s words, some coastal waterways, and puts Canada more than five and a half million km² above Canada’s own stated total area. Land area is used instead, as on /vs, which documents the discrepancy in full.
If you think one of these belongs on the page, the argument is with the reason printed beside it, and it is a correction if the reason is wrong.

Sources

Indicator code, the Bank’s own name for the series, the year this page resolved to, and how many economies reported in it. Indicator vintage: 2026-07-13. Rows are listed in the order they appear above.

  • Population density — EN.POP.DNST, “Population density (people per sq. km of land area)”. Resolved to 2023; 215 of 217 economies reported that year (best year in the window: 216). No line drawn — it is an endowment; no policy makes a country wetter, flatter or less empty.
  • Births per woman — SP.DYN.TFRT.IN, “Fertility rate, total (births per woman)”. Resolved to 2024; 217 of 217 economies reported that year (best year in the window: 217). No line drawn — the direction of better is contested, and this page will not assume one quietly.
  • GDP per person, growth — NY.GDP.PCAP.KD.ZG, “GDP per capita growth (annual %)”. Resolved to 2025; 186 of 217 economies reported that year (best year in the window: 211). No line drawn — it is a rate of change, and the distance between two annual rates is a year rather than an ambition.
  • Infant mortality — SP.DYN.IMRT.IN, “Mortality rate, infant (per 1,000 live births)”. Resolved to 2024; 196 of 217 economies reported that year (best year in the window: 196). Line drawn inside 45 high income reporters over 1.5M people (20 smaller ones set aside); aims low.
  • Income inequality, Gini — SI.POV.GINI, “Gini index”. Resolved to 2021; 81 of 217 economies reported that year (best year in the window: 93). Line drawn inside 33 high income reporters over 1.5M people (4 smaller ones set aside); aims low.
  • Inflation — FP.CPI.TOTL.ZG, “Inflation, consumer prices (annual %)”. Resolved to 2025; 165 of 217 economies reported that year (best year in the window: 192). No line drawn — it is a rate of change, and the distance between two annual rates is a year rather than an ambition.
  • Tax revenue — GC.TAX.TOTL.GD.ZS, “Tax revenue (% of GDP)”. Resolved to 2021; 128 of 217 economies reported that year (best year in the window: 146). No line drawn — the direction of better is contested, and this page will not assume one quietly.
  • Military spending — MS.MIL.XPND.GD.ZS, “Military expenditure (% of GDP)”. Resolved to 2024; 147 of 217 economies reported that year (best year in the window: 155). No line drawn — the direction of better is contested, and this page will not assume one quietly.
  • Manufacturing — NV.IND.MANF.ZS, “Manufacturing, value added (% of GDP)”. Resolved to 2022; 189 of 217 economies reported that year (best year in the window: 196). Line drawn inside 45 high income reporters over 1.5M people (27 smaller ones set aside); aims high.
  • Intentional homicide — VC.IHR.PSRC.P5, “Intentional homicides (per 100,000 people)”. Resolved to 2019; 133 of 217 economies reported that year (best year in the window: 157). Line drawn inside 46 high income reporters over 1.5M people (17 smaller ones set aside); aims low.
  • Exports — NE.EXP.GNFS.ZS, “Exports of goods and services (% of GDP)”. Resolved to 2024; 172 of 217 economies reported that year (best year in the window: 185). No line drawn — the direction of better is contested, and this page will not assume one quietly.
  • Hospital beds — SH.MED.BEDS.ZS, “Hospital beds (per 1,000 people)”. Resolved to 2021; 125 of 217 economies reported that year (best year in the window: 146). No line drawn — the direction of better is contested, and this page will not assume one quietly.
  • Population growth — SP.POP.GROW, “Population growth (annual %)”. Resolved to 2025; 217 of 217 economies reported that year (best year in the window: 217). No line drawn — it is a rate of change, and the distance between two annual rates is a year rather than an ambition.
  • Youth unemployment — SL.UEM.1524.ZS, “Unemployment, youth total (% of total labor force ages 15-24) (modeled ILO estimate)”. Resolved to 2025; 182 of 217 economies reported that year (best year in the window: 187). Line drawn inside 47 high income reporters over 1.5M people (16 smaller ones set aside); aims low.
  • Physicians — SH.MED.PHYS.ZS, “Physicians (per 1,000 people)”. Resolved to 2020; 136 of 217 economies reported that year (best year in the window: 157). Line drawn inside 43 high income reporters over 1.5M people (10 smaller ones set aside); aims high.
  • Fixed investment — NE.GDI.FTOT.ZS, “Gross fixed capital formation (% of GDP)”. Resolved to 2024; 165 of 217 economies reported that year (best year in the window: 173). Line drawn inside 45 high income reporters over 1.5M people (13 smaller ones set aside); aims high.
  • Renewables in energy used — EG.FEC.RNEW.ZS, “Renewable energy consumption (% of total final energy consumption)”. Resolved to 2021; 212 of 217 economies reported that year (best year in the window: 212). Line drawn inside 47 high income reporters over 1.5M people (35 smaller ones set aside); aims high.
  • Foreign investment received — BX.KLT.DINV.WD.GD.ZS, “Foreign direct investment, net inflows (% of GDP)”. Resolved to 2024; 192 of 217 economies reported that year (best year in the window: 196). No line drawn — the direction of better is contested, and this page will not assume one quietly.
  • Labour force participation — SL.TLF.CACT.ZS, “Labor force participation rate, total (% of total population ages 15+) (modeled ILO estimate)”. Resolved to 2025; 182 of 217 economies reported that year (best year in the window: 187). Line drawn inside 47 high income reporters over 1.5M people (16 smaller ones set aside); aims high.
  • Suicide — SH.STA.SUIC.P5, “Suicide mortality rate (per 100,000 population)”. Resolved to 2021; 185 of 217 economies reported that year (best year in the window: 185). Line drawn inside 46 high income reporters over 1.5M people (12 smaller ones set aside); aims low.
  • Unemployment — SL.UEM.TOTL.ZS, “Unemployment, total (% of total labor force) (modeled ILO estimate)”. Resolved to 2025; 182 of 217 economies reported that year (best year in the window: 187). Line drawn inside 47 high income reporters over 1.5M people (16 smaller ones set aside); aims low.
  • Public spending on education — SE.XPD.TOTL.GD.ZS, “Government expenditure on education, total (% of GDP)”. Resolved to 2022; 164 of 217 economies reported that year (best year in the window: 171). No line drawn — the direction of better is contested, and this page will not assume one quietly.
  • Tertiary enrolment — SE.TER.ENRR, “School enrollment, tertiary (% gross)”. Resolved to 2023; 128 of 217 economies reported that year (best year in the window: 147). No line drawn — the series can exceed 100% by construction, so a decile on it is not a number anything can aim at.
  • High-technology exports — TX.VAL.TECH.MF.ZS, “High-technology exports (% of manufactured exports)”. Resolved to 2023; 160 of 217 economies reported that year (best year in the window: 169). No line drawn — the direction of better is contested, and this page will not assume one quietly.
  • Research and development — GB.XPD.RSDV.GD.ZS, “Research and development expenditure (% of GDP)”. Resolved to 2021; 88 of 217 economies reported that year (best year in the window: 102). Line drawn inside 44 high income reporters over 1.5M people (7 smaller ones set aside); aims high.
  • Electricity from renewables — EG.ELC.RNEW.ZS, “Renewable electricity output (% of total electricity output)”. Resolved to 2021; 204 of 217 economies reported that year (best year in the window: 206). Line drawn inside 47 high income reporters over 1.5M people (29 smaller ones set aside); aims high.
  • Bachelor’s degree or higher — SE.TER.CUAT.BA.ZS, “Educational attainment, at least Bachelor's or equivalent, population 25+, total (%) (cumulative)”. Resolved to 2022; 105 of 217 economies reported that year (best year in the window: 112). Line drawn inside 37 high income reporters over 1.5M people (10 smaller ones set aside); aims high.
  • Internet users — IT.NET.USER.ZS, “Individuals using the Internet (% of population)”. Resolved to 2024; 182 of 217 economies reported that year (best year in the window: 204). Line drawn inside 46 high income reporters over 1.5M people (20 smaller ones set aside); aims high.
  • Population — SP.POP.TOTL, “Population, total”. Resolved to 2025; 217 of 217 economies reported that year (best year in the window: 217). No line drawn — it is a count, so the ranking is largely a ranking of how big a country is.
  • People aged 65 and over — SP.POP.65UP.TO.ZS, “Population ages 65 and above (% of total population)”. Resolved to 2025; 217 of 217 economies reported that year (best year in the window: 217). No line drawn — the direction of better is contested, and this page will not assume one quietly.
  • Researchers in R&D — SP.POP.SCIE.RD.P6, “Researchers in R&D (per million people)”. Resolved to 2022; 82 of 217 economies reported that year (best year in the window: 90). Line drawn inside 38 high income reporters over 1.5M people (8 smaller ones set aside); aims high.
  • Life expectancy at birth — SP.DYN.LE00.IN, “Life expectancy at birth, total (years)”. Resolved to 2024; 217 of 217 economies reported that year (best year in the window: 217). Line drawn inside 47 high income reporters over 1.5M people (39 smaller ones set aside); aims high.
  • Output per worker — SL.GDP.PCAP.EM.KD, “GDP per person employed (constant 2021 PPP $)”. Resolved to 2025; 168 of 217 economies reported that year (best year in the window: 177). Line drawn inside 46 high income reporters over 1.5M people (10 smaller ones set aside); aims high.
  • GDP per person, price-adjusted — NY.GDP.PCAP.PP.KD, “GDP per capita, PPP (constant 2021 international $)”. Resolved to 2025; 185 of 217 economies reported that year (best year in the window: 199). Line drawn inside 46 high income reporters over 1.5M people (17 smaller ones set aside); aims high.
  • GDP per person — NY.GDP.PCAP.CD, “GDP per capita (current US$)”. Resolved to 2025; 186 of 217 economies reported that year (best year in the window: 214). Line drawn inside 46 high income reporters over 1.5M people (17 smaller ones set aside); aims high.
  • Patent applications, residents — IP.PAT.RESD, “Patent applications, residents”. Resolved to 2021; 113 of 217 economies reported that year (best year in the window: 126). No line drawn — it is a count, so the ranking is largely a ranking of how big a country is.
  • Military spending, total — MS.MIL.XPND.CD, “Military expenditure (current USD)”. Resolved to 2024; 151 of 217 economies reported that year (best year in the window: 159). No line drawn — it is a count, so the ranking is largely a ranking of how big a country is.
  • Fixed broadband — IT.NET.BBND.P2, “Fixed broadband subscriptions (per 100 people)”. Resolved to 2022; 206 of 217 economies reported that year (best year in the window: 206). Line drawn inside 47 high income reporters over 1.5M people (32 smaller ones set aside); aims high.
  • Air passengers carried — IS.AIR.PSGR, “Air transport, passengers carried”. Resolved to 2023; 149 of 217 economies reported that year (best year in the window: 160). No line drawn — it is a count, so the ranking is largely a ranking of how big a country is.
  • Health spending per person — SH.XPD.CHEX.PC.CD, “Current health expenditure per capita (current US$)”. Resolved to 2023; 191 of 217 economies reported that year (best year in the window: 193). No line drawn — the direction of better is contested, and this page will not assume one quietly.
  • Merchandise exports — TX.VAL.MRCH.CD.WT, “Merchandise exports (current US$)”. Resolved to 2025; 205 of 217 economies reported that year (best year in the window: 206). No line drawn — it is a count, so the ranking is largely a ranking of how big a country is.
  • Health spending — SH.XPD.CHEX.GD.ZS, “Current health expenditure (% of GDP)”. Resolved to 2023; 192 of 217 economies reported that year (best year in the window: 193). No line drawn — the direction of better is contested, and this page will not assume one quietly.
  • CO₂ per person — EN.GHG.CO2.PC.CE.AR5, “Carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions excluding LULUCF per capita (t CO2e/capita)”. Resolved to 2024; 203 of 217 economies reported that year (best year in the window: 203). Line drawn inside 47 high income reporters over 1.5M people (30 smaller ones set aside); aims low.
  • The whole economy — NY.GDP.MKTP.CD, “GDP (current US$)”. Resolved to 2025; 186 of 217 economies reported that year (best year in the window: 214). No line drawn — it is a count, so the ranking is largely a ranking of how big a country is.
  • Scientific articles — IP.JRN.ARTC.SC, “Scientific and technical journal articles”. Resolved to 2023; 197 of 217 economies reported that year (best year in the window: 197). No line drawn — it is a count, so the ranking is largely a ranking of how big a country is.
  • Renewable fresh water per person — ER.H2O.INTR.PC, “Renewable internal freshwater resources per capita (cubic meters)”. Resolved to 2022; 181 of 217 economies reported that year (best year in the window: 183). No line drawn — it is an endowment; no policy makes a country wetter, flatter or less empty.
  • Net migration — SM.POP.NETM, “Net migration”. Resolved to 2025; 217 of 217 economies reported that year (best year in the window: 217). No line drawn — it is a count, so the ranking is largely a ranking of how big a country is.
  • Land area — AG.LND.TOTL.K2, “Land area (sq. km)”. Resolved to 2023; 215 of 217 economies reported that year (best year in the window: 216). No line drawn — it is an endowment; no policy makes a country wetter, flatter or less empty.
  • Arable land per person — AG.LND.ARBL.HA.PC, “Arable land (hectares per person)”. Resolved to 2023; 206 of 217 economies reported that year (best year in the window: 206). No line drawn — it is an endowment; no policy makes a country wetter, flatter or less empty.
  • Forest — AG.LND.FRST.K2, “Forest area (sq. km)”. Resolved to 2023; 213 of 217 economies reported that year (best year in the window: 214). No line drawn — it is an endowment; no policy makes a country wetter, flatter or less empty.