How Scalebar works

Every number here passed a fact-check. Here's exactly how.

Our whole promise is that the figures are real, so the process that gets them onto the page is the product. Here it is, start to finish.

1. Start from one thesis. Each explainer answers a single question, “who controls X?”, chosen because the answer is concentrated and consequential.
2. Pull primary data. Figures come from primary datasets (World Bank, IMF, USGS, OECD, UN, national statistics offices), not from other articles.
3. Fact-check every figure. Before publication, each claim is checked against a cited source. Any figure we cannot verify is held, not published. Genuinely messy topics get skipped rather than guessed.
4. Rebuild charts from the data. Every chart is built from the underlying numbers, never screenshotted from someone else.
5. Disclose the AI assistance. Explainers are AI-assisted projections of our video scripts, and we say so on every one. Figures carry an “as of” context where it matters.
6. Correct in the open. Found an error? The record is corrected and noted. We would rather fix it than bury it.

What this means for you

You can forward a Scalebar chart and defend it. Every number is traceable to a primary source, and the ones we weren't sure about never made it in.

Where the limits are

We are honest about this: data on global production and trade is often months behind and sometimes contested. Where sources disagree, we say “about” instead of faking a precision the data doesn't support. We round to what the evidence actually carries.