Every rated African sovereign, by S&P, Moody's and Fitch.

Each rating is the agency's latest long-term foreign-currency issuer rating on the sovereign, on its international scale. Local-currency, short-term and national-scale ratings are left out, and so is any rating the agency has withdrawn. The outlook is the one in force at the agency's last action.

The ratings are S&P Global Ratings', Moody's Ratings' and Fitch Ratings' own. Anansi records each rating with where it came from: the ESMA European Rating Platform (the EU's public register of ratings by registered agencies), an agency's SEC Rule 17g-7 disclosure, or the agency's release. A rating Anansi has only seen in the news is never shown as the agency's statement.

To compare the three alphabets, every rating sits on one scale of notches: AAA and Aaa are 21, BBB- and Baa3 are 12 (the lowest investment grade) and default is 0, which covers SD, RD and D. The median is the middle rating of the agencies shown, written on the S&P and Fitch scale; the spread is the gap in notches between the highest and lowest.

A blank cell means Anansi holds no current rating from that agency, not that the agency does not rate the country.