Editorial and corrections policy

Source hierarchy

Country and regional figures use the UN Population Division’s World Population Prospects as the primary source. Explanatory pages prefer official statistical documentation, methodological reports, and established public institutions. Secondary sources may provide context but do not silently replace the named dataset.

Writing standards

We label projections as projections, avoid unsupported causal claims, and do not invent expertise, interviews, testing, or personal experience. Interpretations distinguish what a chart directly shows from possible causes that need other evidence.

Structured and automated pages

The country, regional, and ranking pages are generated from reviewed templates so 237 profiles use the same definitions and do not drift into incompatible claims. Automation is used for calculations, tables, URLs, metadata, and sentences whose values come directly from visible data.

Automation is not used as permission to invent country-specific history or policy analysis. The profile template supplies original utility through interactive time views, cohort calculations, exact tables, comparable indicators, and transparent methodology. Changes to the template are checked across every generated route.

Guide selection

A guide must answer a distinct user question, explain a concept required to use the data, or provide a repeatable analytical method. We consolidate closely related keyword variations rather than publishing multiple shallow pages. Length follows the subject; completeness, clarity, and usefulness matter more than a target word count.

Commercial independence

Display advertising may fund the site. Advertisers do not approve content or affect data rankings. Ads, if enabled, are delivered separately from editorial templates. We do not ask readers to click ads or create navigation intended to manufacture impressions.

Updates

Guide pages display publication and update dates. Dataset revision dates are shown in source notes. A new calendar year does not turn a projection into an observed count; labels follow the underlying source revision. New UN revisions are reviewed for changed definitions and coverage before publication.

Quality checks

Before deployment, the project validates content schemas, builds every static route, checks unique titles and descriptions, parses structured data, tests internal links, and verifies the sitemap. Those technical checks complement, but do not replace, editorial review of definitions and claims.

Corrections

Reports should identify the page, disputed statement or value, and a supporting source. Confirmed factual or calculation errors are corrected in the source template or data pipeline so the change applies consistently. Material guide changes update the modified date.

Send a correction through the contact page. We may decline changes that merely substitute a different source without resolving a definition, reference-date, or scenario difference.