NationMaster is based on such a great idea. The premise of having gratis one source that would allow quick comparison of countries has merit. Many assignments ask students to do just that. Headlines from both the popular and scholarly press lament young people's lack of geographic literacy with good reason. Too few students could begin to take a world outline map and fill in the country names, much less demonstrate any knowledge of the background, physical features, ethnic populations, religions or health care access. A first perusal of NationMaster was exciting. It is possible to compare countries, get profiles of individual countries or categories such as agriculture, crime, social issues, education and many more. The devil is in the details, though, and with closer scrutiny, it is disappointing. Too often the information and statistics are out of date in a time when changes are unfolding at a dizzying pace. In addition, it is difficult to discern where the exact data comes from, making it difficult to look for newer statistics from the issuing agency. Two requests for further source information and updating frequency went unanswered.
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