Reading this platform
How to know what to trust
Nine distinctions. Every one of them changes what a number on this platform means, and every one is marked in the interface wherever it applies. If you read only this page, you will still read the rest of the platform correctly.
Observation versus projection
An observation is a value somebody measured in a stated year, from a named database. A projection is arithmetic this platform performed on that history under an assumption it publishes. They never share a typographic treatment, and every projected figure on this site carries its year and its scenario. If a number has no scenario attached, it was measured.
Scenario versus prediction
A scenario is a description of what follows IF a stated pace holds. A prediction is a claim about what will happen. This platform publishes only the first. Nothing here carries a probability, because a probability would imply a model of the future that no honest reading of the evidence supports.
Calculated value versus sourced claim
A calculated value is produced by a published formula from published inputs — you can reproduce it by hand. A sourced claim is something an institution stated, carried here with its publisher, date and link. Calculated values appear in tables and on the map; sourced claims appear in the evidence sections with their source attached.
Verified versus unverified
Verified means this platform opened the source and checked the claim against it. Unverified means the claim was recorded from a report that has not been checked against the issuing institution. Unverified items are kept and marked rather than dropped, because a stated weakness is more useful than a silent absence.
Not evident versus unexamined
These are the two most important words on the platform, and they are not synonyms. Not evident means we looked and found nothing — a finding about the world. Unexamined means we have not looked — a finding about us. Collapsing them would let silence read as a result, which is the easiest way for a platform like this to become quietly dishonest.
Country evidence versus continental evidence
A continental statistic describes Africa as a whole and describes no country in particular. Dividing one by 54, or quoting it beside a national flag, is the most common way a claim about this continent becomes false. Continental figures live in the systems layer, attached to no country, and the build fails if one is filed against a country without an explicit note saying it is not that country's number.
Why different sector definitions produce different valid figures
The same country measured as "cultural industries", "creative industries" or "copyright industries" can differ by a factor of three, and all three numbers can be correct. South Africa appears twice on this platform for exactly that reason. Every creative-economy figure here states its measurement frame above the number rather than beneath it, and figures from different frames are never added, averaged or compared.
Why some countries have deeper coverage than others
Research depth is classified in four bands and computed from the breadth of the evidence, not its volume. 11 countries meet the deepest published standard; 13 have had no country-specific document reviewed at all and say so on their own pages. Depth follows the availability of evidence and the time this platform has spent, never the importance of the country — and no country is promoted to a higher band without meeting the published criteria.
How corrections are handled
Superseded findings are recorded, not deleted. When this platform got something wrong — a faulty projection model, a wrong attribution, a research conclusion reached too early — the withdrawn version stays on the Changes page beside the correction, with the reason. A platform that quietly rewrites its own findings cannot be audited, and one that cannot be audited should not be trusted.
Which 54 countries, and why
This platform models the 54 African states that are members of the United Nations. That is a dataset and model-scope decision, and it is worth stating plainly rather than leaving inside a phrase like "all African countries".
The African Union has 55 member states. The difference is the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, an AU member that is not a UN member state. Sovereignty over Western Sahara is disputed.
The reason for the 54 is practical, not political. Every quantitative series on this platform — the 74 indicator series and the population projections behind every scenario — is compiled and published against UN member states. There is no equivalent series for the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, and this platform does not estimate values to fill a gap. Including it would mean either inventing its numbers or showing an empty country, and the first is forbidden here while the second would misrepresent the reason for the emptiness.
Nothing in this scope decision takes a position on sovereignty or territorial status. Western Sahara is drawn on the map as a distinct hatched territory and labelled a United Nations Non-Self-Governing Territory with disputed sovereignty. It is not selectable, because there is no series to select. Erasing it from the map would be as inaccurate as colouring it in.
If comparable published series for the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic become available, the scope can widen and the change will be recorded on the Changes page like any other.
What this platform will not do
- It will not estimate a missing value to make a map look complete. Where a country has no value, it has no value.
- It will not attach a probability to a scenario.
- It will not model war, sovereign default or a catastrophic climate event. Those lie outside any band drawn from realised history, and are named as risks instead of given a number.
- It will not present an announcement as an asset. Delivery status is recorded on every commitment, and the build fails if a project marked delivered is described in the future tense.
The Method page carries the full technical account. The Sources register lists all 158 reviewed documents and every indicator series, filterable, plus a computed register of what is missing. The Changes page carries every correction. Rights and permitted use states what you may do with any of it — quoting, citing, linking, printing and teaching need no permission.