About

The world runs on a few numbers. We make them legible.

Scalebar is a data-explainer publication about how the world is actually divided up: who produces, controls, and trades the resources and staples the global economy runs on.

Most of the systems you depend on come down to a surprisingly small set of numbers: who mines the cobalt in your phone, who refines the world's copper, who grows the wheat that feeds a region. Those numbers decide prices, power, and risk, and they usually sit buried in reports no one reads. We pull them out, check them, and turn each one into a single clear chart and explainer.

Every piece starts from one original thesis and is built on primary data. No hot takes, no recycled headlines.

What we promise

• Sourced, not speculatedEvery figure traces to a named primary source. If we can't cite it, we don't publish it.
• Fact-checked or heldEach claim is checked before publication. Anything we can't verify is held back, not rounded up.
• Faceless by designWe make no first-person claims and never fabricate testimonials. What we offer is sourcing, not a personality.
• Free, and staying freeThe whole point is that more people can see who controls the things they depend on. No paywall.

Want to see how a claim becomes a published chart? Read our methodology.