Credits & licences
Where the data, maps, flags, portraits and code on this site come from, and the terms they are used under.
Everything World Literacy teaches is built from public or openly licensed sources. This page names each of them, with the licence it is used under and, where a licence asks for it, the credit it requires. The wording of the cards, the choice of what to include and the explanations of why things matter are original to this project. World Literacy is not affiliated with or endorsed by any of the organisations named here.
Country data
Country facts and descriptions are from The World Factbook, 2024 edition, a publication of the United States Government in the public domain, served by the World Factbook Archive (worldfactbookarchive.org). The Factbook is cited as its publisher requests; this site is not affiliated with or endorsed by the Central Intelligence Agency, and the CIA seal is not used. The Factbook was discontinued in February 2026; the 2024 edition remains in the public domain.
Statistics
Country populations, the population rankings and the Global Trends series are from the World Bank, World Development Indicators, licensed CC BY 4.0. Indicators used: SP.POP.TOTL, SI.POV.DDAY, SH.DYN.MORT, SP.DYN.LE00.IN, SP.DYN.TFRT.IN, EG.ELC.ACCS.ZS, SH.H2O.BASW.ZS, IT.NET.USER.ZS, SH.IMM.MEAS, SN.ITK.DEFC.ZS, SP.URB.TOTL.IN.ZS and EN.GHG.ALL.MT.CE.AR5. Values are rounded and reformatted; the World Bank did not review this use.
Dates
The dates of the History events and the lifespans of the People were cross-checked against Wikidata (CC0, no rights reserved). Person pages link to the corresponding Wikipedia article for further reading; no Wikipedia text is reproduced.
Maps and software
Country geometry for the globe comes from Natural Earth (public domain), as redistributed in TopoJSON form by world-atlas (ISC licence) and rendered with D3.js v7.9.0 and topojson-client v3.1.0 (both ISC licence). The flat world map is world-states.svg from SVG-World-Map by Raphael Lepuschitz (MIT licence), whose country outlines derive from the Wikimedia Commons files BlankMap-World.svg (public domain) and Blank Map World Secondary Political Divisions.svg (CC0). The locator maps in the decks were drawn from the same Natural Earth data. The notices those licences require:
D3.js
Copyright 2010-2023 Mike Bostock Permission to use, copy, modify, and/or distribute this software for any purpose with or without fee is hereby granted, provided that the above copyright notice and this permission notice appear in all copies. THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND THE AUTHOR DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES WITH REGARD TO THIS SOFTWARE INCLUDING ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR BE LIABLE FOR ANY SPECIAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER RESULTING FROM LOSS OF USE, DATA OR PROFITS, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE OR OTHER TORTIOUS ACTION, ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE.
topojson-client
Copyright 2012-2019 Michael Bostock Permission to use, copy, modify, and/or distribute this software for any purpose with or without fee is hereby granted, provided that the above copyright notice and this permission notice appear in all copies. THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND THE AUTHOR DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES WITH REGARD TO THIS SOFTWARE INCLUDING ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR BE LIABLE FOR ANY SPECIAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER RESULTING FROM LOSS OF USE, DATA OR PROFITS, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE OR OTHER TORTIOUS ACTION, ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE.
world-atlas
Copyright 2013-2019 Michael Bostock Permission to use, copy, modify, and/or distribute this software for any purpose with or without fee is hereby granted, provided that the above copyright notice and this permission notice appear in all copies. THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND THE AUTHOR DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES WITH REGARD TO THIS SOFTWARE INCLUDING ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR BE LIABLE FOR ANY SPECIAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER RESULTING FROM LOSS OF USE, DATA OR PROFITS, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE OR OTHER TORTIOUS ACTION, ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE.
SVG-World-Map
MIT License Copyright (c) Raphael Lepuschitz Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions: The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software. THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.
Flags
Flag images are from Flagpedia.net, served by flagcdn.com, and are in the public domain.
Portraits
Portraits on the People pages, the People grid and the timeline are served unmodified, as thumbnails, from Wikimedia Commons. Each person page carries the credit for its own portrait. The files whose licences require attribution are listed here with the creator, the licence and a link to the file on Commons.
Figures cited from
The Geopolitics, Economics and Threads cards quote figures from the sources named on each card, among them the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI, sipri.org), the Federation of American Scientists, Ember (CC BY 4.0), the U.S. Energy Information Administration, UNCTAD, the International Energy Agency (CC BY 4.0), the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, the World Trade Organization, TrendForce and national statistical offices. Each figure is cited with its source and data year; no text, table or chart from these publishers is reproduced. SIPRI figures are cited in the form it asks for: information from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), https://www.sipri.org. The Sources & verification page lists every registered figure with the exact edition it was checked against.