摘要：A new strand of literature aims at building the most comprehensive and accurate database of notable individuals . We collect a massive amount of data from various editions of Wikipediaand Wikidata. Using deduplication techniques over these partially overlapping sources, we cross-verify each retrieved information . For some variables, Wikipediaadds 15% more information when missing in Wikidata. We fnd very few errors in the part of the database that contains the most documented individuals but nontrivial error rates in the bottom of the notability distribution, due to sparse information and classifcation errors or ambiguity. Our strategy results in a cross-verifed database of 2.29 million individuals (an elite of 1/43,000 of human being having ever lived), including a third who are not present in the English edition of Wikipedia. Data collection is driven by specifc social science questions on gender, economic growth, urban and cultural development . We document an Anglo-Saxon bias present in the English edition of Wikipedia, and document when it matters and when not .
