Mini-guide : Composite Indicators & Scoreboards Explorer.
Date: 2023-09-18
Institutions: Joint Research Centre
Subjects: competitiveness, data processing, information analysis, innovation, knowledge transfer, research and development

Mini-Guide 

Composite Indicators & Scoreboards Explorer 

How to use the Explorer? 

In  order  not  to  get  overwhelmed  by  more  than  half  a 
million data points included in this tool, this Mini-Guide 
shows how the Explorer tool can be used to bridge data 
to action. It will do so by showing you what you can find 
in  the  Explorer  and  by  providing  four  practical 
examples.  You  will  get  to  know  how  Camilla,  Arthur, 
Antonio  and  Aurora  use  the  tool  to  find  data  for  a 
briefing, research or report.  

Key terms 

A composite indicator or an index is a way of compiling 
one score from a range of indicators that represent the same 
phenomenon. The results  are usually communicated  using 
scores and ranks.  

A scoreboard or a dashboard is a collection of indicators 
related to a common concept, in which all individual 
indicators are presented up-front.  

What  is  the  Composite  Indicators  & 
Scoreboards Explorer? 

visualise 

The Composite Indicators & Scoreboards Explorer 
is  a  European  Commission’s  interactive  tool to  explore 
and 
from  over  150 indices, 
scoreboards and dashboards that have been devised 
and  implemented  by  European  Union  institutions, 
international organisations and universities.   

data 

Until  now,  information  on  these  measures  have  been 
fragmented  and  spread  across  multiple  websites  and 
publications,  making  it  difficult  to  locate.  By  bringing 
this information into one single platform, the Explorer 
tool allows to combine data from multiple sources in any 
policy  area  and  explore  the  interlinkages  between 
existing indicators sets.  

This tool is an initiative of the Competence Centre on 
Composite  Indicators  &  Scoreboards  at  the  Joint 
Research Centre of the European Commission. 

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Browse through 150+ indices and scoreboards  Indices and Scoreboards 

Pick any measure from the list and see at a glance how countries, regions or cities perform in your selected 
measure. You will be able to navigate through a series of data visualisations which will help you to glean insights 
and understand patterns and relationships among values. 

Innovation ecosystem performance 
in 132 countries as measured by 
the Global Innovation Index 
(WIPO, 2022), an aggregated 
measure of 82 indicators. The 
differences in innovation 
performance across the world are 
large, ranging from the highest 
values (dark blue) in North 
America, European Union, China, 
South Korea, Japan, Australia and 
New Zealand to the lowest in 
Africa (yellow). 

Countries arranged on the left-
hand side of the heatmap are 
doing better across the whole set 
of 24 indicators of the OECD 
Better Life Index (OECD, 2020). 
Similarly, the indicators displayed 
at the top are the ones in which 
most of the 40 countries are doing 
better. The heatmap automatically 
arranges countries from best to 
lower performance (top to bottom) 
and indicators from best to lower 
performance (left to right). 
Countries or indicators with poor 
data coverage are arranged at the 
right-hand side and at the bottom, 
respectively. 

Index page  Map visualisation 

Scoreboard page  Heatmap visualisation  

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How do I make use of the tool in practice? Meet Camilla. 

? 

Camilla cannot decide which would be the best country in Europe to start her 
innovative tech-start-up, so she wants to take a decision based on data.  

Using  the  Explorer,  Camilla  discovers  the  European  Innovation  Scoreboard  and  finds  out  that  Sweden  and  
Switzerland and are the leading countries in innovation. Camilla selects the two countries in the “Global Overview” 
tab that can be found in the Index page. She sees that even if Switzerland has overall the higher mark, there are two 
highly relevant indicators for her in which Sweden scores much better than Switzerland (5. Finance and support and 6. 
Firm investments). 

Index page  Global overview visualisation 

Camilla is also interested to know more about other elements that could be relevant for her decision, so  she consults 
the  Indices  and  scoreboards  page.  When  it  comes  to  each  country’s  reputation,  attractiveness  and  female 
opportunities, both countries have very similar performances (as seen by the Anholt-Ipsos Nation Brand Index, Venture 
Capital & Private Equity Country Attractiveness Index, Global Attractiveness Index and Female Opportunity Index). She 
then turns to another aspect that is what life as a  migrant  would look like in the country. Camilla checks the Migrant 
Integration Policy Index, which measures policies to integrate migrants in countries, and she finally decides to choose 
Sweden which scores almost two times higher than Switzerland for starting her business.   

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Discover countries from a bird’s eye view  Countries 

Choose a country and discover its performance by looking at a series of measures together.  You will be 
able to filter by any of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals or any of the European Commission policy 

priorities. 

A close-up at 20 indices 
measuring aspects related 
to the “European Green 
Deal” category shows 
that overall Italy is 
among the middle-top to 
top performers (blue dots) 
in this area, with the 
exception of the Ecological 
Footprint. By moving 
beyond the overall 
performance (first dot) it 
is possible to gain 
additional insights into 
which areas further 
improvements are needed 
(yellow dots).  

Italy’s Country page  Scoreboard of Scoreboards visualisation 

How do I make use of the tool in practice? Meet Arthur. 

? 

Arthur  works  as  a  policy  advisor  on  the  green  transition  and  is  notified  that  his 
Director is going to Spain for a meeting with the Ministry of Environment. He urgently needs 
to deliver a brief on Spain’s performance in the green transition.  

Arthur decides  to  use  the  Explorer as  an  entry  point  and visits  the  country  page  of  Spain.  He  notices  that  Spain 
scores among the top 5 within its income group in eight indices out of 149 indices included in the tool at the time. 
He selects the “European Green Deal” in the “Overview by policy area” tab and finds close to 30 relevant indices. 
He is now able to compare how Spain (red dot in the chart) is doing in relation to the European Union and concludes 
that Spain is often an average performer.  

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He downloads the chart and highlights the indices in which Spain tops the list, such as the Just Transition Score, the 
Planetary pressures-adjusted Human Development Index and the Ecological Thread Report.  

Arthur also spots where Spain has still room for improvement. This is the case when it comes to the implementation 
of  environmental  policies  as  measured  by  the  Environmental  Policy  Stringency  Index,  which  is  also  reflected  in 
Spain’s  low  score  in  Environmental  Performance  Index.  This  could  also  be  an  interesting  piece  of  information,  he 
thinks, while continuing to search.  

Spain’s Country profile  Overview by policy area visualisation 

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Explore the interlinkages between indices  Synergies and trade-offs 

Select a set of indices and discover how they are linked to each other. The correlation matrix allows you 
to explore the synergies and trade-offs between different pairs of indices and their components, while the 

scatterplot allows you to get a more detailed view of the relationship.  

The correlation matrix 
allows to explore the 
relationships between 
indices and discover their 
synergies and trade-offs 
and get a more detailed 
view using the 
scatterplot. Different 
indicator frameworks can 
be compared with the aim 
of understanding their 
similarities and 
differences. For example, 
when it comes to gender 
equality-related indices, 
the blue cells in the matrix 
show us that there is a 
good agreement between 
these frameworks. This 
means that countries 
doing better at one 
gender-related index are 
also doing better on the 
others. 

Synergies & trade-offs page  Correlation matrix visualisation 

How do I make use of the tool in practice? Meet Antonio. 

? 

Antonio has embarked on a new job,  in which he has been  tasked  with writing a 
report on the synergies and trade-offs between the Sustainable Development Goals. 

Using the Explorer, Antonio discovers the SDG Index, an index developed by the Sustainable Development Solutions 
Network,  which  measures  193  countries’  performance  on  the  17  SDGs.  As  he  is  interested  to  learn  about  the 
interactions  between  the  different  goals,  he  goes  to  the  Synergies  &  Trade-offs  webpage.  Here  he  uses  the 
correlation matrix to  check  for  synergies  (positive  correlations  as  highlighted  by  the  blue  cells)  and  trade-offs 
(negative correlations as highlighted by the red cells).  

Within  the  SDG  Index,  he  sees  mainly  synergies  between  the  pairs  of  goals  (in  blue),  but  he  also  spots  evident 
trade-offs when it comes to environmental-related goals, such as SDG12 and SDG13 (in red). 

This  piques  his  interest,  prompting  him  to  delve  deeper  into  other  SDG-related  indices  that  he  selects  from  the 
drop-down menu, e.g. Happy Planet Index, Social Progress Index, etc. He realises that indices measuring the use 
of natural resources, such as the planetary pressures of the Human Development Index and the Ecological Footprint, 
tend  to  exhibit  a  negative  correlation  with  all  the  indices  capturing  socio-economic  SDGs.  His  finding  highlights 
incompabilities between environmental and socio-economic SDGs, which call for a deeper investigation. 

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Synergies & Trade-offs page  Correlation matrix visualisation 

Gain insights by policy area  Policy areas 

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Choose  a  policy  area  from  any  of  the  17  Sustainable  Development  Goals  or  any  of  the  European 
Commission Policy Priorities (for the 2019-2024 period). All relevant indices linked to that policy area will 
be displayed allowing you to highlight various geographic areas, countries, or averages. This page is especially 
valuable if you seek an overview of a world region or a country's performance in a specific policy area. 

When selecting a policy 
area, for example “Goal 
7: Affordable and 
Clean Energy” 10 
indices appear that 
measure aspects related 
to this topic. You can see 
how a group of countries 
like the European Union 
or a particular country 
like Austria (orange dot) 
fares in comparison to 
others. For example, 
Austria is well above the 
EU average when it 
comes to the Clean 
Energy Innovation Index, 
Energy Transition Index 
and World Energy 
Trilemma Index, but falls 
behind in the Climate 
Change Performance 
Index, Green Future 
Index and European 
Energy Efficiency 
Scoreboard (position of 
Austria in relation to the 
grey line representing the 
EU average). 

Policy areas page  Policy area visualisation 

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How do I make use of the tool in practice? Meet Aurora. 

? 

Aurora needs to contribute to a report about gender equality in South America, 
using Argentina as a case study. 

Aurora  acknowledges  that  gender is  a  complex  subject  that  can  be  measured  in  various  ways.  Drawing  from  her 
experience, she is aware that several measures exist, but not all include South America. To discover which indices 
include South America, Aurora goes the Explorer tool. She reaches the Policy areas page, from where she selects 
Goal 5: Gender Equality. She finds 10 indices measuring aspects related to gender equality.  

She highlights South American countries (in yellow), Argentina (in orange) and the average of South America (grey 
line) to facilitate her analysis, and quickly sees that Argentina is represented in six distinct gender-related indices.  
She  concludes  that  Argentina  consistently  performs  better  than  the  South  American  average.  From  here,  she 
proceeds selecting individual indices to gain deeper insights into the composition of each of them. This will help her 
to  understand  in  which  areas  Argentina  is  doing  better  and  can  serve  of  inspiration  for  other  South  American 
countries. 

Policy areas page Policy area visualisation 

W E B S I T E  
https://ec.europa.eu/scoreboards-explorer   

C O N T A C T   I N F O R M A T I O N  
JRC-Explorer@ec.europa.eu 

D I S C L A I M E R  
The opinions expressed are those of the authors only and should not be considered as representative 
of the European Commission’s official position. The designations employed and the presentation of 
material  on  the  maps  do  not  imply  the  expression  of  any  opinion  whatsoever  on  the  part  of  the 
European Union concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, 
or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. 

PDF ISBN 978-92-68-07639-2   doi:10.2760/58585   KJ-09-23-439-EN-N 

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