# Understanding Public Data

> Universal OSINT. Content reviewed 2026-10-16.
> Canonical page: https://universalosint.org/understanding-data/

A number needs a definition, a population, a place, and a period. Read those details before drawing a chart or comparing countries.

Illustration only: a gap means unknown or unavailable, not a measured zero.

## Read these five things first

- **Definition:** what is measured, and which people or events are included?
- **Unit:** is it a count, a percentage, a rate, or a monetary value? A percentage needs a denominator.
- **Time and place:** distinguish the reference period from release date; check boundaries and reporting intervals.
- **Method:** is the value observed, surveyed, estimated, or modeled? Read uncertainty and quality flags.
- **Version:** has the source revised values or changed definitions? Record the release you used.

## Compare like with like

Two countries may report different age groups or use different collection methods. Even within one country, a revised definition can break a time series. If you cannot align the definitions, avoid ranking them or presenting a continuous trend.

**Percent or percentage points?** In a hypothetical example, a rate rising from 20% to 25% increases by **5 percentage points**, or **25% relative to its initial value**. These are different descriptions of the same change.

## Say what the data cannot tell you

An aggregate does not describe every person. A correlation does not establish a cause. "Not available," "not applicable," and zero are different states; keep the source's distinctions rather than silently filling gaps.

## Try an official source

Read an indicator in the [UN SDG Metadata Repository](https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/metadata/), then find its observations in the [SDG data platform](https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/dataportal). [World Bank Open Data](https://data.worldbank.org/) is another starting point; do not assume similarly named indicators are interchangeable.

## Keep learning

Find a [suitable source](https://universalosint.org/sources/) or look up a term in the [glossary](https://universalosint.org/glossary/).

Original educational text: [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Third-party sources retain their own terms.