Rank history explorer
Rank tables on official sites show this year only. This tool reconstructs the whole climb: a country's world rank for every published year, plotted with rank 1 on top, plus the best and worst years and the biggest single-year jump.
How to use it
- Pick an indicator and a country.
- The chart plots rank over time (inverted axis — up is better) with the field size as context.
- The facts box calls out the best year, the worst, and the largest single-year move.
FAQ
How are ranks computed?
For each year, every country with a published value is sorted by it; the rank is the position in that sort. Countries without data that year are simply not counted, which is why the field size changes over time.
Why does the field shrink in older decades?
The World Bank's coverage widens over time — fewer economies reported GDP in 1960 than today. The chart labels the field size so a rank of 5th of 33 is not confused with 5th of 190.
Can I download the rank table?
The underlying values can be exported from the export tool; rank columns are one sort away once you have the full field.