# Our World in Data

8 Hacker News commenters recommended Our World in Data and 5 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 6 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** Recommended for clear interactive charts comparing countries and topics like cancer and energy, though critics most often question its funding by venture capital backers tied to AI companies.

## Why people recommend it

- Clear interactive charts for comparing countries (2 comments): "They have good tools for visualising data and comparing between countries." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47732743)) "makes interactive graphs that are easy to understand" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47979954))

## What people warn about

- Funded by venture capital and billionaires (2 comments): "It's literally funded and published by the VCs backing so many of the AI companies here." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48037109)) "Our world in data is neoliberal think tank supported by billionares." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48793667))
- Selective or misleading data presentation (2 comments): "This is the second time this week I have seen this website misrepresenting data using this same trick." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49213364)) "That was not what ourworldindata chose (or had the data for) to showcase." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47404629))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [ciechanow.ski](https://hackerapproved.com/p/ciechanow-ski.md): 33 recommend
- [Size of Life](https://hackerapproved.com/p/size-of-life.md): 30 recommend
- [PGSimCity](https://hackerapproved.com/p/pgsimcity.md): 27 recommend
- [Ithihāsas](https://hackerapproved.com/p/ithih-sas.md): 18 recommend
- [Now I Get It](https://hackerapproved.com/p/now-i-get-it.md): 17 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Our World in Data", https://hackerapproved.com/p/our-world-in-data/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).