Every dataset we publish starts the same way: a question a journalist, a policymaker or a researcher couldn’t answer with what was already public. This post is a short note on how we pick what to measure next, and why we’d rather publish three well-documented indicators than thirty undocumented ones.
Why fewer, better indicators
Lebanon already has no shortage of numbers circulating in public debate — the problem is usually provenance, not volume. A statistic without a clear source, methodology note and update cadence tends to get cited once and then quietly contested. Our own indicators go through the same three checks before they’re published: where the raw data comes from, how recently it was refreshed, and whether the methodology is stable enough to compare year over year.
What this means for the site
You’ll notice every chart on our Data page links back to its source and carries a last-updated note. That’s deliberate — an indicator you can’t trace isn’t much more useful than no indicator at all. If there’s a number you’ve seen quoted that you’d like us to trace and verify, get in touch through the Contact page.