FAQ
Sources, methodology,
licensing — answered.
Short, sourced answers about what Sworn is and how the numbers are computed.
What is Sworn?
Sworn is a global accountability platform that compares what governments officially promised — through UN SDG targets, Voluntary National Reviews, and national commitments — with what citizens actually experience. It covers all 217 countries and territories tracked by the World Bank, uses only official data sources (World Bank, WHO, ILO, FAO, Transparency International, Reporters Without Borders, UN SDG database), and verifies citizen sentiment by national ID. Each country receives a Sworn Score from 0 to 100.
How is the Sworn Score calculated?
The Sworn Score is a 0–100 index from normalized values of 123 official metrics across seven categories: Health (life, mortality, nutrition, water + sanitation, immunization, physicians), Economy (GDP, growth, poverty, inequality, employment, inflation, debt), Governance (six Worldwide Governance Indicators plus CPI and press freedom), Education (literacy, enrollment, learning outcomes, spending), Infrastructure (electricity, internet, mobile, urban density, roads), Environment (CO₂, forest cover, renewables, air quality), and Rights (women in parliament, gender parity, female labor force, child labor, refugees). Weights are Health 18%, Economy 16%, Governance 16%, Education 14%, Infrastructure 12%, Environment 12%, Rights 12%. Bounds are trimmed at the 2.5th and 97.5th percentile and frozen per year so scores stay comparable. Every published score also carries a ±2 (≥90% data coverage) or ±5 (70–89%) confidence range; countries below 70% coverage show "Unable to calculate" instead of a low-confidence number. Categories below 70% of their own indicators populated are also suppressed from the per-country breakdown (same threshold at both levels).
Where does Sworn get its data?
Exclusively from official institutions: World Bank (World Development Indicators), WHO (Global Health Observatory), ILO, FAO, Transparency International (Corruption Perceptions Index), Reporters Without Borders (Press Freedom Index), and the UN SDG database. No third-party aggregators. Every metric on every country page links back to the original source dataset, with the ingestion date and indicator code visible.
How does Sworn verify citizen sentiment?
Citizens authenticate with a government-issued national ID before submitting reports. This blocks bot farms and ensures one verified voice per resident per country. Identity data is held by the KYC provider — Sworn only stores verification status and the verified country. Only aggregated, anonymized sentiment is shown on country pages and via the API.
Is Sworn data free to use?
Yes. All country profiles, metrics, promise data, and rankings are published under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0) and accessible through a free public JSON API at api.sworndata.org. Paid commercial tiers (high-volume access, real-time webhooks, bulk downloads) fund the platform. Citizens never pay. Institutions never pay. Use the data freely — attribute Sworn.
What is a 'promise' on Sworn?
A promise is a public, dated commitment a government has made — a UN SDG target it signed, a Voluntary National Review submission, an EU accession chapter benchmark, or a sitting-government program with a quantified target and deadline. Sworn maps each promise to a measurable metric and labels it Achieved, On Track, Failing, Broken, or Tracking based on trajectory from official data.
How many countries does Sworn cover?
All 217 countries and territories that the World Bank tracks — every UN member state plus territories like Hong Kong, Puerto Rico, and Kosovo. A Sworn Score is currently computed for 192 of them; the remaining 25 fall below the 70% data-coverage threshold and show "Unable to calculate" rather than a low-confidence number. Their country pages still render so you can see the gap. Historical scores go back to 1965 with the year selector.
Can I see how a country changed over time?
Yes. Every country profile has a History table showing its Sworn Score year-by-year from 1965 to today, plus its rank. The map and rankings also have a year selector, so you can see what the world looked like in 1990, 2000, 2015, or any year in between. Each year uses that year's methodology (trimmed bounds over the trailing 5-year window).
How is Sworn funded?
API access fees from organizations that need structured accountability data — newsrooms, NGOs, ESG funds, research institutions. Citizens never pay. Institutions never pay. No ads. No sponsors. API customers cannot change the data. If funding comes with conditions on what we show, we decline.
How do I report a data error or contact the team?
Email info@sworndata.org or use the contact form at sworndata.org/contact. For data corrections, include the country ISO3, the metric, and a link to the source you believe we contradict. We respond within 2 business days. All country data is also free under CC BY 4.0, so you can use it without contacting us.
Looking for something not listed? Read the methodology page, browse the API, or get in touch.