Methodology and sources
This page lists the public sources behind each site. Individual stories give the exact table, release and processing steps.
Principles
Use data that the publisher releases openly. Respect each publisher's terms of use. Keep the original source file or a validated snapshot in the repository. Record transformations in code so results can be reproduced.
Where an official source does not exist for a figure, an estimate is allowed only if it is labelled as an estimate and the method is described.
Global
- World Bank, indicator SP.POP.TOTL (total population), for the world population map.
- World Atlas country boundaries (Natural Earth data) for map geometry. Country identifiers use ISO 3166-1 alpha-3.
- Planned: official national statistical offices for subnational data, with estimates labelled where no official figure exists.
Japan
- Statistics Bureau of Japan, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications: Survey on Time Use and Leisure Activities 2021; Report on Internal Migration in Japan.
- Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications: Survey on Local Public Finance.
- Immigration Services Agency of Japan (Ministry of Justice): Statistics on Foreign Residents in Japan, end of 2025.
- Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare: foreign-worker employment notifications; pension register 2025. Japan Health Insurance Association: insured-person register, 1 October 2024.
- Ministry of Justice (immigration and correctional statistics) and Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (School Health Statistics), obtained through e-Stat.
- National Tax Agency: private-sector salary data for the wage story.
- Use is governed by the Government of Japan Standard Terms of Use, version 2.0.
Taiwan
- Legislative Yuan Gazette, via ly.govapi.tw (CC BY 4.0): roll-call records.
- Central Election Commission: certified results of the 2014, 2018 and 2022 local elections.
- Ministry of the Interior: statistics, military-service data, and the Actual Price Registration of real estate.
- Ministry of National Defense: defence and conscription data.
- Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics: household income and expenditure survey.
- Joint Credit Information Center (JCIC), under the Open Government Data License v1.
Corrections and questions
Send corrections or source questions to stats.visualize@gmail.com. Include the story URL and the figure in question.