Every figure carries its certainty
On the page, in the CSV and in the APIReported
reportedPublished by the provider for that exact period.Modelled
estimatedThe provider’s own estimate, where no count or survey covers the period. The model is theirs. We never add one.Derived
derivedArithmetic on two published figures for the same country and year, such as exports minus imports. On the site’s pages these count with reported figures, since both inputs were published.Indicative
indicativeAn informal-market reading. There is one: Nigeria’s street exchange rate, a median of public quotes, kept apart from the official rate and never offered as tradable.No data
no rowNo usable record. Hatched on the map, a break in the line, a blank in the table. Never a zero.The middle column is the value of value_status the API returns with each observation. How a figure is marked is the provider’s call as we record it, not a judgement of ours.
What we do
- Keep every value attached to its year, its source and its certainty.
- Record when we retrieved it, and which release of the dataset it came from where the provider names one.
- Keep a provider’s low and high estimate beside its figure, where it publishes one.
- Say, for every indicator, how many countries reported the figure and how many were estimated.
- Break the line where the record breaks, so a missing year looks missing.
What we never do
- Estimate a value ourselves. Every modelled figure is its provider’s model, not ours.
- Interpolate between years, or extend a series past its last observation.
- Fill a gap with a zero.
- Blend sources that disagree. The one composite in the record, Nigeria’s street exchange rate, says that it is one.
Where it comes from
We take most series from international agencies, which compile them from national statistics offices, and some directly from central banks, regulators and exchanges. The record draws on 59 datasets from 48 organisations.
OrganisationDatasets we takeTermsLast refreshed
Wikidata / Wikimedia FoundationWikidata Current Governments, Wikidata Elections, Wikidata Government History, Wikidata Policy DocumentsCC0 1.017 Oct 2026
World BankGlobal Economic Monitor Signals, World Bank Kenya Food Signals, World Bank Pink Sheet Commodity Benchmarks, World Development IndicatorsWorld Bank Open Data Terms; World Bank microdata terms15 Oct 2026
Airports Company South AfricaACSA South Africa Airport Signals, ACSA South Africa On-Time Performance SignalsACSA website terms17 Oct 2026
Bank Al-MaghribBank Al-Maghrib FX Rates, Bank Al-Maghrib Policy SignalsBank Al-Maghrib website terms17 Oct 2026
Bank of TanzaniaBank of Tanzania FX Rates, Bank of Tanzania SignalsBank of Tanzania website terms17 Oct 2026
Our World in DataEnergy Mix (Ember / Energy Institute) via Our World in Data, Governance Indices (CPI, V-Dem) via Our World in DataCC BY 4.0 (OWID); underlying data (c) Ember and the Energy Institute; CC BY 4.0 (OWID); CPI (c) Transparency International; V-Dem (c) V-Dem Institute27 Jun 2026
Africa API (composite of public aggregators)Nigeria Parallel FX CompositeCompiled from public street-rate aggregators and P2P markets18 Oct 2026
Central Bank of NigeriaCentral Bank of Nigeria SignalsCentral Bank of Nigeria website terms17 Oct 2026
Central Intelligence AgencyCIA World Leaders roster observationsPublic domain (unmarked CIA content)17 Oct 2026
Department of Mineral and Petroleum ResourcesDMPR South Africa Fuel SignalsDMPR website terms7 Oct 2026
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United NationsFAOSTAT AgricultureFAO Terms and Conditions3 Oct 2026
International Renewable Energy AgencyIRENA Renewable Electricity CapacityIRENASTAT terms of use2 May 2026
International Telecommunication UnionITU ICT Coverage and Affordability IndicatorsITU DataHub terms of use15 Aug 2026
Official national sources; reviewed Africa API researchCited official government institutional evidencePer-document official source terms18 Sep 2026
South African Reserve BankSouth African Reserve Bank SignalsSouth African Reserve Bank website terms24 Sep 2026
United Nations Development ProgrammeHuman Development Report — Composite IndicesCC BY 3.0 IGO26 Jun 2026
United Nations Trade and DevelopmentUNCTAD Structural Trade and Investment IndicatorsUNCTADstat terms of use19 Aug 2026
When more than one source publishes the same country and year, the API returns one: the source ranked first for that measure, and otherwise the one retrieved most recently. Central banks rank first for their own country’s inflation and official exchange rate, the ILO for unemployment, and the World Bank for the national accounts. The other sources stay in the record and can be requested by name with source=. Nothing is averaged.
What this data cannot tell you
A gap is not a zeroRead each of the 207 indicators at its own latest year and 29 per cent of the country cells are empty. A total across countries is therefore a lower bound, not a total.
A modelled figure is someone’s model18 per cent of the cells that do carry a figure are the provider’s estimate rather than a count or survey for that year, and 28 indicators are estimated for fifteen or more countries. The mark on the figure says which.
Latest means different moments107 of the 207 indicators have a figure from 2025 or later; 33 stop at 2023 or earlier. Every page says which year a figure belongs to. Compare across measures with that in mind.
The year in progress is an estimateFor GDP, GDP per head, growth, consumer-price inflation and the current account, the World Bank is the first source, and the IMF’s World Economic Outlook fills the recent years the World Bank has not yet published, up to the current year. The IMF’s figure for a year still in progress is its estimate, and the record does not yet mark it as one. On a figure’s own page, an annual value for a year still in progress is labelled as an estimate whatever the record says.
A restated figure replaces the old oneWhen a provider revises a figure, the record takes the new value. The retrieval date and the dataset version say which release you are reading. The earlier value is not kept.
Definitions differ between countriesWhat counts as urban, employed or literate is set nationally. We pass on the provider’s series as published and do not re-harmonise it.
Some countries are measured lessCoverage is uneven, and the thinnest records are rarely where the least is happening. Countries shows how many of the core datasets each country carries.
Citing this
Our compilation is CC BY 4.0, free to reuse commercially. Source data keeps its provider’s licence, listed above.
Africa API (2026). africa-api.com. Retrieved 18 Oct 2026. CC BY 4.0.
Each indicator and country page gives its own citation, and the CSV from an indicator page carries the request behind it and the date you took it. Found something wrong? Tell us.