We love sites which help visualize information here at WC central, especially those which can put into context otherwise dry statistics. NationMaster, though, takes the prize. Combining data from the UN, the CIA, the WHO, the World Bank, the World Resources Institute, UNESCO, UNICEF, and the OECD, NationMaster lets you generate maps and graphs on an enormous variety of subjects. They claim to have over 4,000 different datasets at present, and the number is growing.

While the latest set of statistics (on mortality) is getting a bit of blog play today, WC readers may find the statistics on the environment, internet use, and energy a bit more of interest. One of the most provocative aspects of NationMaster is the correlations system, which lets you compare a given stat to other statistics, even seemingly unrelated ones. Correlations are only available to "supporters" who subscribe to the site -- a small fee which I expect to be coughing up soon.

Update: Boingboing claims that the site might cause problems for Mozilla-based browsers. For whatever it's worth, I browsed it without difficulty using Firefox/Mac