Methodology
[S/1] is an open-data intelligence platform that aggregates publicly available country risk indicators from official and authoritative sources into composite scorecards, a sanctions screening tool, and a global risk map. Data sources include World Bank WGI, Transparency International CPI, EU JRC INFORM, US DOL TVPRA, GDELT, OFAC, EU, UK and UN sanctions lists, FATF, FSI, RSF, and Yale EPI. It is designed as a rapid triage tool — not a substitute for entity-level due diligence.
How It Works
Each country is evaluated across six independent risk dimensions. Every indicator is assigned a risk level — low, moderate, high, or severe — based on fixed, transparent thresholds derived from the source's own scale or established risk-assessment practice.
A composite risk band is then computed by evaluating the pattern of indicator-level results. A single adverse indicator does not dominate the composite; the algorithm considers both the number and the severity of risk-positive indicators to produce a balanced overall rating.
The composite score (0–100) reflects a weighted contribution across all available indicators, so a country with one severe indicator and otherwise low risk will score lower than a country with several severe indicators.
A minimum of two indicator groups with data is required to compute a composite rating. Where data is missing for a specific indicator, that dimension is excluded from the composite without penalising the country.
Data Sources
Governance
World Bank — Worldwide Governance Indicators (WGI)
Aggregate governance score combining Voice & Accountability, Political Stability, Government Effectiveness, Regulatory Quality, Rule of Law, and Control of Corruption. Updated annually by the World Bank.
Source ↗Corruption
Transparency International — Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI)
Composite index ranking countries by perceived levels of public-sector corruption, based on expert assessments and business surveys. Scored 0 (highly corrupt) to 100 (very clean).
Source ↗INFORM Risk
European Commission JRC — INFORM Risk Index
Composite humanitarian crisis-risk index covering hazard & exposure, vulnerability, and lack of coping capacity. Developed by the Joint Research Centre for the EU and UN partners.
Source ↗Forced Labour
U.S. Department of Labor — TVPRA List of Goods
Count of goods flagged by the U.S. DOL as produced with forced or child labour in each country, pursuant to the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act.
Source ↗Sanctions
EU, OFAC, UN, and UK consolidated sanctions lists
Total designations from the four major sanctions regimes: EU Consolidated List, U.S. OFAC SDN List, UN Security Council Consolidated List, and UK Sanctions List. Normalised by population where data permits.
Source ↗Violent Events
GDELT Project — CAMEO-coded event data via Google BigQuery
90-day intensity of physical conflict events (assault, armed clash, terrorism, mass violence) as a share of total monitored events per country, sourced from the GDELT v2 event database.
Source ↗FATF Status
Financial Action Task Force — Black & Grey Lists
Jurisdictions under increased monitoring (grey list) or subject to a call for action (black list) by the global AML/CFT standard-setter. Updated three times per year.
Source ↗State Fragility
Fund for Peace — Fragile States Index (FSI)
Composite index measuring state vulnerability across cohesion, economic, political, and social dimensions. Scored 0 (sustainable) to 120 (high alert). Updated annually.
Source ↗Press Freedom
Reporters Without Borders — World Press Freedom Index
Annual ranking of press freedom based on political, legal, economic, and safety indicators. We invert the RSF scale so higher scores indicate greater press freedom (0–100).
Source ↗Environmental Performance
Yale & Columbia — Environmental Performance Index (EPI)
Composite index ranking countries on environmental health and ecosystem vitality across 40+ indicators. Scored 0–100 (higher = better). Updated biennially.
Source ↗Limitations
- Indicators update on different cycles — some annually, some daily. The scorecard reflects the most recent data available at generation time.
- All source data is subject to the methodological limitations of its publisher. Governance and corruption indices rely on perception surveys; sanctions counts capture volume but not enforcement intensity; event data depends on media coverage density.
- The composite band is a screening signal, not a policy determination. It does not account for sector-specific risks, sub-national variation, or entity-level controls.
- Countries with populations below approximately 300,000 may have limited data coverage across several indicators.
Updates & Freshness
Data is ingested daily via automated pipelines. Each scorecard shows the precise ingestion date for every source. The composite score is recomputed whenever any underlying indicator updates.
For questions about methodology, updates, or access to the raw data, contact engage@salientone.eu.
Deep Dive
For a practitioner-level analysis of how regulatory frameworks interact with conflict-affected jurisdictions, read the Salient One position paper:
Ukraine and the EU Regulatory Perimeter ↗