Who are you and what’s your mission?

Our World in Data is a project of Global Change Data Lab, a nonprofit based in the UK (registered charity number 1186433).

Our mission is to increase understanding of the world’s biggest problems and drive informed action against them.

We achieve this by disseminating high-quality data and research, empowering those working towards solutions, and helping improve the institutions and ecosystems necessary for the generation and use of data and research on the world’s biggest problems. Read more about our mission.

Much of our work focuses on finding the highest quality and most comprehensive data available. This data is available thanks to the crucial work of numerous data providers that we rely on, from academic researchers and think tanks to international institutions like the WHO, UN, and World Bank.

We bring this data all into one place, visualize it in our interactive charts, give it crucial context and explanation with our writing, and make it easy for others to reuse.

Our work would not be possible without the researchers and data providers we rely on, so we ask you to always respect their license terms and cite them appropriately. This is crucial to allow data providers to continue doing their work, enhancing, maintaining, and updating valuable data.

How are you funded?

We are funded through grants and reader donations. You can learn more about our funding on our Funding page.

Reader donations are essential to our work — they give us the stability and independence to deliver more data, charts, and insights on an increasing number of topics, all free and open to everyone.

If you want to learn more about reader donations, see our Donations FAQs. You can help us do more by donating — it will make a real difference.

Do your funders have editorial oversight or control over your publication?

No. While we are extremely grateful for all of our funders, without whom our work would not be possible, none of them have editorial oversight or control over our work.

All of our work, including all editorial decision-making, is led internally and independently of any external influence from donors or any other parties.

Most of our funding comes from unrestricted donations, with a smaller portion of funding coming from restricted grants, e.g., to cover particular topics. But we only apply for grants to cover topics that we are already interested in and have the expertise for.

Can I reuse or republish your charts?

Yes! Unless otherwise stated, you can use, reproduce, and distribute any chart we made (those with our logo and CC BY copyright stamp), provided that you cite us.

You do not need permission from us, and we do not sign copyright release forms, provided that you cite us appropriately.

To cite one of our charts, cite the page that it’s found on or that is linked to at the bottom of the chart. For example, our chart on annual CO2 emissions by world region has a link at the bottom of the chart to our page on CO2 and greenhouse gas emissions, which should be cited as:

Hannah Ritchie, Pablo Rosado and Max Roser (2023) - "CO₂ and Greenhouse Gas Emissions" Published online at OurWorldinData.org. Retrieved from: 'https://ourworldindata.org/co2-and-greenhouse-gas-emissions' [Online Resource]

You can download our charts by clicking the download button in the bottom right. Select the PNG option for most uses, such as including in a presentation. Select the SVG option for use with design software (such as Figma, Adobe Illustrator, or Inkscape), including to produce a high resolution version.

Note that some of the charts on our site were produced by third parties and are subject to their license terms. For example, this chart about gender pay differences comes from the World Bank’s World Development Report and is subject to their license terms. We ask you to always respect the license terms of third parties and cite them appropriately.

Can I reuse or republish your data?

It depends on the data source, which is always indicated along with the data.

Most of the data on Our World in Data comes from third-party providers (such as the WHO, UN, and World Bank) and is subject to the license terms of those providers. You should always check their license before reusing or republishing the data. Our work would not be possible without the data providers we rely on, so we ask you to always respect their license terms and cite them appropriately.

Some of the data on our site is produced by us — you can tell because it will say “Official data collated by Our World in Data”, “with major processing by Our World in Data”, or similar. Data produced by us falls under our permissive CC BY license; you have permission to use, reproduce, and distribute it, provided that you cite us.

Citation instructions for all data on our site (whether produced by third-parties or by us) can be found by clicking “Learn more about this data” at the bottom of our interactive charts, and at the bottom of our pages dedicated to specific data indicators (for example, the child mortality rate).

Read more about how to reuse the data we have on our site.

Can I republish your articles and other writing?

Yes. You can republish or reproduce our writing, online or in print, for free and without permission, provided that you follow all the guidelines set out in these FAQs, and in particular:

You must credit Our World in Data and its authors and make it clear that we are not active contributors to your publication by including the following statement in the byline or at the top of the material:

• “Originally published by [author names] at Our World in Data. Republished here under a Creative Commons license.”
• Link back to the original material on our site, for example, on the words “Originally published”.

You must not republish our material in a context that presents it, whether directly or indirectly, as endorsing a position not in the intention of the original authors.

You must not edit the material, except to reflect relative changes in time, location and editorial style. If you do wish to make material edits, you will need to run them by us for approval prior to publication. Authors can be contacted via info@ourworldindata.org.

If you use a canonical URL tag for your online publication, this tag must point to the original material on Our World in Data.

In online publications, you should embed our interactive charts whenever possible. This is easy to do by following these instructions.

Can I reuse or republish third-party material made available on your website?

Most of the data and some of the charts on Our World in Data come from third-party providers (such as the WHO, UN, and World Bank). Such materials are subject to the license terms of those providers.

You should always check their license before reusing or republishing their data, charts, or other material. Our work would not be possible without the third-party providers we rely on, so we ask you to always respect their license terms and cite them appropriately.

What software do you use for your visualizations — and can I use it?

We develop our own visualization and database tool, the Our World in Data Grapher. This tool is free to use on any other web publication. The code is open-source under the MIT License and can be found here on GitHub.

Note, however, that the code is not currently well-designed for reuse as a visualization library, nor for reproducing the full production environment we have at Our World in Data, as our tools are tightly coupled with our database structure.

We're gradually taking steps towards making our Grapher tool more reusable. However, we still prioritize needs specific to our project, which can sometimes be at odds with making our tools reusable externally.

You are still very welcome to reuse and adapt any of our code for your own purposes, and we welcome contributions!

Can I use the Our World in Data name or logo?

You are only permitted to use the Our World in Data name or logo as it appears on our charts, articles, and other pages. You have this permission only as long as your use of the material we make available is in accordance with the license terms and follows these guidelines.

You are not permitted to use our logo on its own or to imply endorsement. This would require an institutional process for a more formal partnership or collaboration.

If we believe your use of material contravenes the license terms or these guidelines, at our written request you must promptly remove the Our World in Data name and logo from all material appearing online on the websites and other platforms under your control.

How should I cite your charts?

To cite one of our charts, cite the page that it’s found on or that is linked to at the bottom of the chart. For example, our chart on annual CO2 emissions by world region has a link at the bottom of the chart to our page on CO2 and greenhouse gas emissions, which should be cited as:

Hannah Ritchie, Pablo Rosado and Max Roser (2023) - "CO₂ and Greenhouse Gas Emissions" Published online at OurWorldinData.org. Retrieved from: 'https://ourworldindata.org/co2-and-greenhouse-gas-emissions' [Online Resource]

How should I cite your data?

Citation instructions for all data on our site (whether produced by third-parties or by us) can be found by clicking “Learn more about this data” at the bottom of our interactive charts, and at the bottom of our pages dedicated to specific data indicators (for example, the child mortality rate).

How should I cite your articles and other writing?

Citation instructions for our articles and other writing are linked to at the top of the piece of writing and can be found at the bottom of the page. For example, here are the citation instructions for our article on artificial intelligence scaling.

Can I use your work for teaching?

Yes! We know that many teachers use our work, from primary school to postgraduate education. Just be sure to follow our guidelines on reusing our charts, data, and writing.

We love to hear about and support our work being used for teaching. We have a Teaching Hub where we provide interactive teaching notes, presentation slides, charts, and many other resources.

Our interactive charts are featured in the CORE Econ textbooks, and in their teaching resources you can find many great ideas for how to include interactive charts in online courses.

If you use our work for teaching, we’d love to hear from you and would be happy if you send us your slides or teaching material.

If something is missing for you or you have any suggestions for how to make our work more useful for teaching, please get in touch at info@ourworldindata.org or through our feedback form.

Can I work with you or contribute in other ways?

If you’re interested to work with us, any job opportunities will be listed on our Jobs page. Currently we don’t offer any internship or volunteer opportunities, only full-time roles.

We do not accept any guest articles or posts. If you are interested in working with us as a writer, look out for any writer positions that might open up.

If you are a web developer and want to contribute to our open-source code, you can find all the details on our GitHub.

Finally, a very helpful way to contribute to our work is to support us with a donation. Reader donations are essential to our work — they give us the stability and independence to deliver more data, charts, and insights on an increasing number of topics, all free and open to everyone.

How do I stay updated with your latest work?

We have newsletters and accounts on several social media platforms to help you stay updated with our work. See the full list and subscribe here.

Can I translate your work into another language?

We fully support readers translating and sharing our work in their own personal networks. This use is covered under our CC BY license.

However, you must make it clear that your translation is not official nor endorsed by us. Here’s a sample recommended statement for your use:

“This is a translation of the original work, produced by [your name]. It is not an official or authorized translation, nor endorsed in any way by Our World in Data or the original authors.”

Where possible, please provide a link back to the original work on our site.

I have translated your work into another language; will you link to it?

We do not currently have the capacity to manage any collaborations on a more official translation project, whether with organizations or individuals.

For the same reason, we're also unable to endorse or advertise translations of our work.

How do you choose which topics to cover?

We cover a topic if we believe it helps our readers understand one or several of the world’s largest problems. We consider many criteria in determining this, which you can read about in our article “How we choose which topics to work on, and which metrics to provide”.

How do you choose which data to show?

For each topic, we work to provide the best data to understand it. What data is “best” will often depend on our specific questions. We consider many criteria in determining this, which you can read about in our article “How we choose which topics to work on, and which metrics to provide”.

Where do you get your data from?

Much of our work focuses on finding and bringing together the highest quality and most comprehensive data available across numerous topics.

There are four main sources for the data that we bring together, all of which are publicly available:

• International institutions and statistical agencies, such as the OECD, the World Bank, the WHO, and UN institutions.
• Specialized institutes and think tanks, such as the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO).
• Academic research articles, such as Bourguignon & Morrison (2002) ’Inequality Among World Citizens: 1820-1992’ in the American Economic Review.
• Official data from government sources; for example, our COVID-19 vaccination and testing datasets compiled the official numbers published by governments and health ministries worldwide.

In every chart, we clearly indicate the source of the data being shown. We also indicate whenever we have combined data sources or made changes to the original datasets (such as regional aggregations, per capita transformations, etc.).

Our work would not be possible without the data providers we rely on, so we ask you to always respect their license terms and cite them appropriately. This is crucial to allow data providers to continue doing their work, enhancing, maintaining, and updating valuable data.

How can I embed one of your interactive charts in my website?

To embed one of our interactive charts in your website, simply click the share button in the bottom right of the chart, choose “Embed”, copy the iframe code and paste it into any HTML page. (An iframe is used to display a website within another website; w3schools has more info on iframes.)

For example, to embed our chart on the child mortality rate, the iframe code is:

<iframe src="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/child-mortality" loading="lazy" style="width: 100%; height: 600px; border: 0px none;" allow="web-share; clipboard-write"></iframe>

The iframe code will adapt to the selections that you make on the chart. For example, if you configure the chart on child mortality to show the rate in Africa from 1992 to 2022, the iframe code becomes:

<iframe src="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/child-mortality?time=1992..latest&country=~OWID_AFR&tab=chart" loading="lazy" style="width: 100%; height: 600px; border: 0px none;" allow="web-share; clipboard-write"></iframe>

This applies to other chart selections you might make, such as looking at the map view.

We ask that you not modify the iframe in a way that would prevent some users from viewing the chart, such as by requiring that those users consent to cookies.

Here are a few examples of websites that embed our charts:

• Luxembourg Income Study (LIS) Cross-national Data Center
• 80,000 Hours page on risks from artificial intelligence
• Earth.org page on air pollution
• CORE Econ open-access economics textbooks

What are the terms of use for your website?

Here is our legal disclaimer that describes our terms of use.

Can I change my cookie preferences?

On our privacy policy page you can set your cookie preferences and read about how we collect and use your personal data during your visit to our website.