Pick a country and see how closely every other one matches it in religion, governance, language, heritage and economy. Scores measure distance, not merit.
Data years: religion 2020, governance 2025, exports 2024, economy stats 2024–2025.
Tap any country to compare the two side by side. Use − and + to fit more cards on screen. On the map, scroll or pinch to zoom, drag to move, double-tap to zoom in or snap back.
Every score runs from 0% (nothing in common) to 100% (practically identical). The overall score weights religion, governance and economy at 25% each, language at 15% and heritage at 10%.
Religion compares religious makeup: the share of each population that is Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Jewish, other faiths or nonreligious, and how much of it overlaps. The label shows the two largest groups and their share of the population.
Governance compares a 0 to 100 score built from how democratic elections are, how far courts and legislatures constrain leaders, and how corrupt politics is. The label describes how power is held. Democracies are sorted by structure: constitutional monarchy, presidential or parliamentary. Other systems are named by who holds power: a monarch, the military, clerics or one party. Authoritarian means power concentrated in one leader who faces elections that aren't free. Partial democracy means elections are held but fall short of democratic standards. Labels follow V-Dem's classifications. Under each governance score the three parts that build it are shown for that country, each out of 100: how free and fair elections are, how far courts and the legislature constrain leaders, and how free politics is from corruption (shown as integrity, so a longer bar always means better). Two countries can share an overall score and differ sharply underneath. Bars are coloured when the two countries are within 10 points on that part, and grey when they are not. The side-by-side view shows both countries' parts together.
Language scores a shared official language highest, then a language official in one country and widely spoken in the other, then close relatives (Spanish and Portuguese), then the same branch (Germanic, Slavic) and the same family. The line names the closest link.
Heritage scores countries that were once one state, or in a direct colonial relationship, highest; neighbors and countries in the same region colonized by the same power get half. Most pairs share none of these, so most heritage scores are zero.
Economy compares income per person, how much of the economy is farming and industry, trade openness, how urban the country is, and reliance on natural resources. The line lists the country's three largest exports, goods or services, as a share of everything it sells abroad. Related products are grouped, and aircraft and ships are left out because one-off sales distort them. When sanctions hide oil sales from trade records, oil is listed first with no share. The arrow shows economy health: rising for growth of 3% or more with inflation at or under 6% and unemployment at or under 8%; falling for a shrinking economy, inflation of 15% or more, or unemployment of 15% or more; flat otherwise. Health is shown for context and never affects the score.
The map can also be coloured by what a country is rather than how similar it is: main language, main religion, government type, economy type or biggest export. The nine largest groups get their own colour and the rest are grouped as Other; tap a group in the key to isolate it.
Not shown for lack of economic data: Eritrea, North Korea, South Sudan, Taiwan, Venezuela, Yemen.
V-Dem Institute, V-Dem Dataset v16 (2025 data; religious-legitimation measures from 2023). Governance scores, regime labels and the three governance parts. Coppedge et al., Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) Project. Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0; this page's governance figures are derived from it and carry the same terms.
Pew Research Center, “How the Global Religious Landscape Changed From 2010 to 2020” (2025), Appendix B, 2020 estimates. Religious composition. Used with attribution; Pew does not endorse this site or its conclusions.
Glottolog 5.3 (Hammarström, Forkel, Haspelmath, Bank). Language classification used for the language dimension. Licensed CC BY 4.0.
World Bank Open Data, latest available years 2019 to 2025. Income, economic structure, services exports, growth, inflation and unemployment. Licensed CC BY 4.0.
CEPII, GeoDist (last updated 2011) for languages, borders and colonial history, and BACI trade data (2024, version 202601) for exports. Licensed under Etalab Open Licence 2.0.
Natural Earth, 110m admin-0 country shapes, public domain, projected to a Robinson projection for the map.
Country names and borders follow the source data and imply no political position. Taiwan, Venezuela, North Korea, Eritrea, South Sudan and Yemen are absent because the economic data needed for a full comparison is not published for them.
The data behind this page. Country facts and every pairwise score can be downloaded as CSV:
Data version: V-Dem v16 (2025) · Pew Research Center 2020 estimates (2025 report) · World Bank, latest 2019–2025 · CEPII BACI 202601 (2024 trade) · CEPII GeoDist 2011 · Glottolog 5.3 · Natural Earth 110m.
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