Data Sources
Every dataset that feeds WhereNext's composite country and city rankings, calculators, and reports. We deliberately use public-domain institutional sources so every claim can be independently verified and every dataset can be redistributed freely under CC BY 4.0.
Public-domain institutional sources
Loaded directly from publishing agencies. License, cadence, and primary URL listed for each.
International Comparison Program 2021
World Bank- License
- Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
- Update cadence
- Released roughly every 3 years (next: ICP 2024)
- Coverage
- 176 economies including all 95 covered by WhereNext
- Powers on WhereNext
- Cost of Living Index 2026, Cost of Living Calculator, Salary Calculator (PPP), Budget Builder, Country/City rankings
Price Level Indices for Actual Individual Consumption + food, housing/utilities, and transport sub-categories. Anchors WhereNext's cost_index with US = 82, world = 100.
Human Development Index 2024 Report (2023 data)
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)- License
- Public access (UNDP terms of use)
- Update cadence
- Annual
- Coverage
- 193 countries
- Powers on WhereNext
- Country composite cross-validation, education sub-index, infrastructure proxy, confidence scoring
Global Peace Index 2024
Institute for Economics and Peace- License
- Public access (IEP citation requirements)
- Update cadence
- Annual
- Coverage
- 163 countries
- Powers on WhereNext
- Country safety_index, /rankings/safest-countries, persona scoring for retirees and families
OECD PISA 2022
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)- License
- OECD Terms and Conditions (free for non-commercial use; attribution required)
- Update cadence
- Triennial (next: PISA 2025 results in late 2026)
- Coverage
- 81 economies (90%+ of OECD)
- Powers on WhereNext
- Country education_index, school-vertical scoring, family persona ranking
EF English Proficiency Index 2024
EF Education First- License
- Free with attribution
- Update cadence
- Annual
- Coverage
- 113 countries
- Powers on WhereNext
- Lifestyle dimension (English-proficiency component, ~15% weight), language_access_index
Eurostat — Comparative Price Levels, Life Satisfaction, Crime
European Commission (Eurostat)- License
- Free re-use with attribution
- Update cadence
- Annual to quarterly depending on dataset
- Coverage
- EU-27 + EEA (~33 countries)
- Powers on WhereNext
- EU-block cost sub-indices (food/housing/utilities/transport), life-satisfaction (lifestyle), crime statistics (safety)
592 metric snapshots cached weekly in our location_metric_snapshots table for the 36 EU/EEA countries.
Global Health Observatory (GHO)
World Health Organization (WHO)- License
- WHO open-data policy (attribution required)
- Update cadence
- Annual
- Coverage
- 194 member states
- Powers on WhereNext
- Healthcare data sourcing — UHC service coverage index (UHC_INDEX_REPORTED), physician density (HWF_0001), nursing density (HWF_0006)
WHO GHO is wired through the live data-source adapter at /api/data; results blend with WhereNext-researched healthcare cost data (44 countries).
ITU Statistics — Internet & Mobile
International Telecommunication Union- License
- Free re-use with attribution
- Update cadence
- Annual
- Coverage
- 230+ economies
- Powers on WhereNext
- Infrastructure dimension (internet penetration, mobile broadband)
Open-Meteo Climate API
Open-Meteo (open-source weather API)- License
- CC BY 4.0
- Update cadence
- Live (cached 12 hours)
- Coverage
- Worldwide
- Powers on WhereNext
- Climate comfort score, air quality (PM2.5), city-level seasonality data
REST Countries
REST Countries (open-source)- License
- MIT
- Update cadence
- Live
- Coverage
- 250+ countries
- Powers on WhereNext
- Country metadata: ISO codes, currencies, regions, languages, population
WhereNext-researched data layers
Datasets we built ourselves by aggregating from official primary sources. Cross-verified, source-cited, and confidence-tagged.
International School Catalogue
WhereNext Research (Playwright-scraped from official school websites)- License
- Proprietary catalogue / underlying school websites are publicly accessible
- Update cadence
- Continuous (per-school re-verification on a rolling basis)
- Coverage
- 4,149 schools across 342 cities and 78 countries
- Powers on WhereNext
- International School Costs 2026, true-annual-cost ranking, hidden-fee analysis, admissions-openness scoring
Golden Visa Programmes
WhereNext Research (cross-verified against AIMA, Residency Malta, MISE, USCIS, Singapore EDB, Dubai ICP)- License
- CC BY 4.0
- Update cadence
- Quarterly
- Coverage
- 30 active residency- and citizenship-by-investment programmes
- Powers on WhereNext
- Golden Visa Index 2026, Golden Visa Finder, Cost Calculator, ROI Calculator
Digital Nomad Visa Programmes
WhereNext Research (cross-verified against issuing-country immigration ministries)- License
- CC BY 4.0
- Update cadence
- Quarterly
- Coverage
- 25 active programmes
- Powers on WhereNext
- Digital Nomad Visas 2026 dataset, /digital-nomad-visas hub, country pages
Healthcare Cost Database
WhereNext Research (cross-referenced against OECD Health Statistics + national health ministries)- License
- Internal — outputs are CC BY 4.0
- Update cadence
- Quarterly
- Coverage
- 44 researched countries + modeled estimates for 51
- Powers on WhereNext
- Healthcare Cost Calculator, country/city healthcare profiles, /rankings/best-healthcare, Tax & Relocation Report
Source-approval policy
New data sources are added only when they meet all four criteria:
- Primary source— must be the publishing agency, not a re-aggregator.
- License compatibility— must permit redistribution and attribution-based reuse. Crowd-sourced or paywalled datasets are not eligible.
- Coverage— must cover at least 30 of WhereNext's 95 indexed countries (with modeled fallback acceptable for the remainder).
- Methodology transparency— the publisher must document its own methodology, sample sizes, and update cadence.
Citing this page
All WhereNext composite scores and datasets are CC BY 4.0. Suggested citation:
WhereNext (2026). Data Sources. Retrieved from https://getwherenext.com/sources. CC BY 4.0.
See also /methodology for how these sources combine into composite scores, and /editorial-standards for our correction and retraction policy.