My data provider's coverage is too spotty by country

That’s a common problem. If your provider’s country-level coverage is spotty, the best path is usually to combine sources and use a country-coverage strategy rather than expecting one provider to be complete everywhere.

A practical approach:

1. Map coverage gaps

   • List the countries you need.
   • Mark where the provider is strong, partial, or missing.
   • Prioritize by business impact.

2. Use fallback sources

   • Add secondary data providers for missing countries.
   • Where possible, use official government/statistical sources.
   • Consider APIs from international orgs (World Bank, UN, IMF, OECD, Eurostat, etc.) depending on the metric.

3. Normalize by country

   • Country naming, codes, and boundaries often differ.
   • Standardize on ISO country codes and a consistent geography definition.

4. Fill gaps carefully

   • If a country is missing for some periods, decide whether to:
     • leave as missing,
     • interpolate,
     • use regional proxies,
     • or exclude from analysis.
   • This depends on whether accuracy or completeness matters more.

5. Track provenance

   • Keep source, timestamp, and methodology for each record.
   • This makes it easier to audit and explain discrepancies.

6. Negotiate with the vendor

   • Ask for a country coverage matrix.
   • Request sample extracts for your missing markets.
   • Sometimes they have data available but not included in your current plan.

If you want, I can help you build a country coverage template or suggest alternative sources by metric.