PILOT ISSUE 3 · 2026-10-06
METHOD AND SOURCES
How the pilot index is built, what it leaves out and where each number comes from.
HOW IT IS CALCULATED
- For each world one open indicator is taken, the latest value from 2015 to 2025 for each country.
- For each indicator countries are ordered; a score from 0 to 100 is the percentile place (ties share the middle place). Where lower is better, the scale is reversed.
- The overall score is the simple average of a country's available world scores. Only countries with at least 10 of 12 scores are ranked.
- Nothing is estimated or filled in. A missing value stays missing.
| World | Indicator | Source | Years | Better | Countries |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | Income inequality (Gini index; lower is better) SI.POV.GINI | World Bank · World Development Indicators | 2015–2025 | lower | 151 |
| 02 | CO2 emissions per person (lower is better) EN.GHG.CO2.PC.CE.AR5 | World Bank · World Development Indicators | 2024–2024 | lower | 203 |
| 03 | Voice and accountability (governance estimate) GOV_WGI_VA.EST | World Bank · Worldwide Governance Indicators | 2017–2025 | higher | 207 |
| 04 | Air quality: PM2.5 exposure (lower is better) EN.ATM.PM25.MC.M3 | World Bank · World Development Indicators | 2023–2023 | lower | 200 |
| 05 | Safely managed drinking water (% of people) SH.H2O.SMDW.ZS | World Bank · World Development Indicators | 2017–2024 | higher | 151 |
| 06 | Life expectancy at birth SP.DYN.LE00.IN | World Bank · World Development Indicators | 2024–2024 | higher | 217 |
| 07 | Secondary school enrolment (gross) SE.SEC.ENRR | World Bank · World Development Indicators | 2015–2025 | higher | 191 |
| 08 | Internet users (% of people) IT.NET.USER.ZS | World Bank · World Development Indicators | 2015–2025 | higher | 208 |
| 09 | Unemployment (lower is better) SL.UEM.TOTL.ZS | World Bank · World Development Indicators | 2021–2025 | lower | 187 |
| 10 | Recognised cultural heritage (UNESCO World Heritage properties and Intangible Heritage elements, count) WHC.CULTURAL_MIXED + ICH.ELEMENTS | UNESCO · World Heritage Centre and Intangible Heritage · ICH | 2025–2026 | higher | 217 |
| 11 | Rule of law (governance estimate) GOV_WGI_RL.EST | World Bank · Worldwide Governance Indicators | 2017–2025 | higher | 207 |
| 12 | Responsibility to the future (adjusted net savings, % of income) NY.ADJ.SVNG.GN.ZS | World Bank · World Development Indicators | 2015–2021 | higher | 152 |
WHERE IT IS THINNEST
- World 10, Art and culture: UNESCO's World Heritage and Intangible Heritage lists count recognised monuments, traditions, languages and crafts and the capacity to apply, not the richness of living culture or contemporary art. They favour countries with strong heritage administrations.
- World 12, Memory and future: adjusted net savings measure responsibility to future generations in an economic sense only; archives and memory are not measured; the latest data are from 2021.
- Life in a house, a stairwell, a courtyard: no global open data. The next stage is a resident self-assessment (with consent).
LIMITS
- One indicator per world is a thin proxy, chosen because it is open, regular and covers most countries.
- CO2 per person rewards low-income countries; the choice will be reviewed.
- Equal weights are a simplification, not a statement of what matters most.
- Small states and territories may be missing or rest on little data.
- Reuse of World Bank data follows its open-data terms; check them at data.worldbank.org before republishing.
CORRECTIONS
If you find a mistake or a better open indicator, write to us through the contact page; every correction is read by a person.
LICENCES AND ATTRIBUTION
Data: World Bank (World Development Indicators; Worldwide Governance Indicators, method by D. Kaufmann and A. Kraay), used under CC BY 4.0 and the terms of the original providers; UNESCO World Heritage Centre list of properties; UNESCO Intangible Heritage List (UNESCO DataHub), licence CC BY-SA 4.0. The scores and averages are our own calculations from these data (changes were made). The published data file is therefore shared under CC BY-SA 4.0 with attribution to the sources above. The names of the World Bank and UNESCO are used only to name sources and do not imply their endorsement.