Every dataset in OrionGIS is ready for a map

Most of the world's statistics are published as tables: population by county, school enrolment by country, displacement by district. A table tells you the numbers. A map tells you where they matter. OrionGIS exists to close that gap.

From today, every dataset you find in OrionGIS, whether in Data Explorer, on a search engine or through OrionAI, is one you can put on a map. A table only appears once OrionGIS has made it spatial.

#Tables, joined to the places they describe

OrionGIS reads each table and works out what its rows are about:

• Countries, by name or by ISO code.
• Regions, such as East Africa, West Africa and Asia, or World Bank regions such as Sub-Saharan Africa. Each region is drawn as the outline of its member countries. When a table lists countries and regions together, the map shows the countries and the regions stay in the full table.
• Provinces, counties and districts, by name or ISO 3166-2 code, even when one table covers many countries. Two places called "Central" in two countries stay two places.
• Coordinates and addresses, placed as points.

The joined dataset becomes a premium OrionGIS dataset: ready to style, analyse and share, with the original publisher credited.

#Map files come first

When a publisher offers a GeoJSON, shapefile, KML or imagery alongside a spreadsheet, OrionGIS now publishes the dataset from its map file. The spreadsheet is still there to download.

#More sources on the map

World Bank indicators now join the national statistics offices, HDX, data.gov and the other portals OrionGIS already spatializes, with every economy and every World Bank region on the map. Their rows are read live from the source each time you use them, so you always get the current figures.

#What it means for OrionAI

OrionAI can only analyse what it can map. Because every dataset now arrives with its location, OrionAI can join, compare and map statistics directly, without first working out where each row belongs.