Countries by SPI Pillar 3: Data Products
Mexico leads globally with a data products score of 92.22, excelling at producing comprehensive statistical outputs like national accounts and price indices. Isle of Man scores 12.78, producing minimal statistical indicators. This 622% spread reveals that countries differ dramatically in their ability to generate the statistical outputs that governments, businesses, and researchers need to function.
Ranking 2024
Analysis
The data products pillar measures whether countries produce key statistical outputs covering four dimensions aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): social indicators (health, education, labor), economic indicators (GDP, employment, trade), environmental indicators (land use, emissions), and institutional indicators (governance, statistics capacity). Countries scoring high produce comprehensive national accounts, regular labor force surveys, reliable price indices, and demographic statistics. Those scoring low produce few or unreliable statistics. This matters because data products are the output of statistical systems—without them, no one knows whether the economy is growing, unemployment is rising, or health outcomes improving. Year-over-year volatility averages 7.6%, indicating that statistical capacity changes gradually as countries build survey infrastructure or improve measurement. All 215 countries reported 2024 data with 100% official data quality.
Mexico (92.22, rank 1) leads, followed by Belgium (91.12, rank 2) and Portugal (90.31, rank 3)—a mix of developed and upper-middle-income nations. Developed economies rank well: the USA (88.37, rank 12), Canada (87.22, rank 17), and Australia (85.24, rank 22) all rank in the top 25. However, Germany (83.84, rank 31) ranks lower than expected for Europe's largest economy, and some Asian titans rank surprisingly mid-range: Japan (84.76, rank 24) and South Korea (87.71, rank 16) rank well, but China (76.6, rank 86) ranks significantly lower despite its economic power, reflecting limited publicly available statistical products. India (79.28, rank 68) ranks higher than China, suggesting greater statistical transparency or more published indicators. Small island territories and overseas territories cluster at the bottom: Isle of Man (12.78, rank 215), St. Martin French (14.17, rank 214), and American Samoa (15.87, rank 213) all produce minimal statistical outputs.
El Salvador (85.03, rank 23) ranks higher than Japan, Germany, and many developed nations, suggesting that smaller countries can prioritize statistical output comprehensiveness. Colombia (86.33, rank 20) ranks above numerous wealthier nations. Conversely, Nordic nations—often assumed to dominate statistics—show mixed results: Sweden (89.18, rank 8) and Denmark (87.74, rank 15) rank top-15, but Norway (84.0, rank 30) ranks 30th, suggesting that Nordic strength lies in statistical infrastructure and services more than in producing the final data products themselves. The pattern suggests that data products require deliberate statistical prioritization and resource allocation, not just wealth. Turkey (88.35, rank 13) ranks exceptionally high, reflecting comprehensive statistical production for a middle-income nation. The stability (7.6% volatility) reflects that producing comprehensive statistics is a durable institutional capacity—countries don't rapidly lose or gain this ability without major institutional change.
This pillar measures whether countries produce data products, not whether the data are accurate, timely, or useful. A country scoring 90 may publish many statistics that are outdated, unreliable, or irrelevant to policy questions. Additionally, "data products" assessments rely on evaluator judgment of what constitutes adequate coverage across the four SDG dimensions (social, economic, environmental, institutional)—this judgment may be subjective or culturally biased. The pillar also doesn't distinguish between data produced domestically versus imported from international organizations (like the UN or World Bank), so a country may score high by publishing international data without producing domestically-sourced statistics. Finally, measurement of "data products" is inherently backward-looking—it captures what countries produced in the recent past, not current or future production capacity.
Methodology
The data products pillar score measures each country's ability to produce statistical outputs covering four dimensions aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): social (health, education, labor, demographics), economic (national accounts, employment, prices, trade), environmental (land use, emissions, resources), and institutional (governance, statistics capacity). Countries are assessed on whether they regularly produce comprehensive national accounts, labor force surveys, price indices, demographic statistics, and environmental indicators. Data comes from the World Bank's World Development Indicators (indicator: IQ.SPI.PIL3), assessed through country self-reporting and expert evaluation against SDG statistical frameworks. All 215 countries reported 2024 data with 100% official data quality. The mean data products score is 61.5 with a standard deviation of 19.44, indicating substantial global variation. No extreme outliers were detected (all within 3 standard deviations). Year-over-year volatility averages 7.6%, reflecting gradual institutional changes in statistical capacity. The pillar is part of the broader SPI framework measuring statistical system quality across five dimensions.