The SPF Dataset: Every Number on This Site, Downloadable

What is in it

The dataset is checked against the site rather than copied from it: every page is verified against these records before each deploy, and the natural-oils ranking table and the files below render from them directly.

Values come from the peer-reviewed studies cited on each substance page — chiefly Kaur & Saraf's in vitro determination of herbal-oil SPF (2010), Ácsová et al.'s in vitro and in vivo comparison of vegetable oils (2021), and Ghosh & Dhandha's standardized testing of raspberry seed oil (2024). A measurement is listed only when its source is a verified entry in our research register; where a page's headline figure traces to no such source, the record still carries the value the page displays but its measurements list is empty and provenance reads page-only. Chemical filters carry no SPF: SPF belongs to a finished formulation, not to a filter, so those records describe UV coverage instead.

Two display rules shape the headline numbers. Where a study reports both a lab and a human value, spf_value is the larger of the pair, so a debunk never overstates what the substance does. And spf_display always truncates — never rounds up — with no decimals at 10 or above and at most one below: 19.93 is shown as 19, 6.668 as 6.6. The untruncated figure each study reported is in measurements.

The records

A dash in the SPF column means the substance has no SPF of its own — the chemical filters, and iron oxide, which blocks visible light rather than UV. A dash under Source means the page's figure traces to no verified study in our register; those records are flagged page-only.

Download

• spf.csv — one row per substance, flat columns
• spf.json — the full records, with nested measurements and UV spectrum

Version 2026.09, updated 14 September 2026.

Changes

• 2026.09 — first release. 34 substances: 18 natural oils, 3 mineral filters, 13 conventional filters.

Product test results

A second, separate dataset covers the product-verification pages: one record per published test result, where an independent test body or a regulator measured a named sunscreen against the SPF on its label. Every record carries the body that published it, the date, the method in that body's own words, the verbatim quote and the link to the original publication. Nothing in it was measured by SPF List.

• tests.csv — one row per result, flat columns
• tests.json — the same rows plus the test rounds they belong to, with each result's quote

measured_spf holds a number only where the body published one. Where a source published a range or a pair of figures instead — a brand's clinical range across four institutions, say — measured_spf is null and measured_reported carries the figure exactly as the source printed it. Numbers are never rounded, truncated or averaged across bodies: the methods differ, and a consensus SPF would be a number nobody measured.

Licence and citation

The dataset is published under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0). You may copy, redistribute, adapt and build on it, including commercially, provided you credit SPF List (spflist.com).

How to cite

SPF List. SPF List dataset, version 2026.09. spflist.com, 2026. https://spflist.com/data/

The licence covers this compilation — the records, the fields and the way they are assembled. It does not cover the underlying studies, which remain the work and the property of their authors and publishers; each measurement carries a DOI so you can go to the source and cite it directly.