International comparisons

Comprehensive and up-to-date on the indicators it covers, InternationalComparisons.org is focused on comparing the United States with 11 advanced democracies (12 countries in all). Australia, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, the United Kingdom, are compared with the United States. The site has hundreds of evaluative statistics in multiple pages of categories, shown in tables with links to all sources for every quantitative statistic. Extensive notes and links complement and substantiate the data on every category and page. The site has a simple, consistent interface and format. The purpose of the site is to avoid ideological or simplistic generalizations for and against the various countries, and seeks to provide objective information introducing academics, students, and the media to the issues of comparative evaluation. It does not generate new information, but collects data from OECD, WHO, both referenced below, and a number of other reliable and neutral sources.[7]

Much larger than InternationalComparisons.org, the OECD has the same advanced countries, but also includes 34 additional countries, has a wider scope, and includes many more statistics for the most important websites.[8] The OECD publishes original research as often as on a weekly basis with the objective of affecting change as it strives to achieve its slogan: “Better policies for better lives.” The Better Life Index is the organization's measure for subjective well-being. Because of its size, the OECD statistical database can be complex to navigate until one finds the part one is looking for.[9]

The Social Progress Imperative released its second version of the Social Progress Index. It is based on four "key design principles": exclusively uses social and environmental indicators (no economic indicators), outcomes not inputs (i.e. health status not health expenditure), actionability (translatable pragmatism), and relevance to all countries (neither exclusively focused on the poorest countries nor the advanced democracies). The Social Progress Index contains 54 indicators categorized within the following three categories: basic human needs, foundations of well-being, and opportunity.[10]

The United Nations Development Programme is predominantly focused on low income countries and their advancement, as evidenced in the objectives of the Millennium Development Goals, which strive to eradicate extreme poverty, HIV/AIDS, and promote education via sustainable development globally.[11] The UNDP's Human Development Report is the original, authoritative source on subjective well-being and its evaluative analysis since it first challenged GDP/capita as the indicator for quality of life with its first Human Development Index in 1990.[12][13] The annual Human Development Index is a relevant challenge for over 140 countries regardless of their development stage.

The World Bank aspires to impact development by promoting open data and subsequently transparency, accountability, and democracy as the private sector is emphasized for its role.[14] Its compiled database, the World Development Indicators, contains 18 topics containing hundreds of statistics.[15]

Seven different categories with 79 different “fields” of statistics make up The World Factbook produced by the United States' Central Intelligence Agency.[16]

With an emphasis on how international comparisons and evaluative analysis can impact world health, the World Health Organization offers the Global Health Observatory, a data site on various diseases, mortality rates, and other variables such as gender, class, and technology. Its contains over 50 datasets for as many as 194 countries.[17]