Wolfram Alpha

The United Nations (UN) was officially founded 66 years ago this week, bringing together “peace-loving states” (as the Charter of the UN described them) to cooperate on issues of international law, economic and social development, human rights, and other matters of critical importance to global human development. From the time it launched, Wolfram|Alpha has relied on a wide variety of datasets provided by various UN organizations—and as recent blog posts indicate, these agencies remain an important source of information for international data.

For example, you can ask Wolfram|Alpha for the number of men in China who are 65 years old, and it will a display detailed age pyramid with breakdowns for different age groups.

Or you can tap into population projections from the UN Population Division and see what the world may look like in a few decades. Query “India versus China population in 2030”, and you’ll see the approximate point where India is projected to overtake China as the most populous country in the world.