What's the best way to work with country data JSON in Python? or How can I parse and use country data

Been there!

For clean country data json python, try this:
1. Use `ujson` instead of `json`—it’s faster for big files.
2. Grab data from https://github.com/mledoze/countries. Super detailed.

If you’re filtering, `jq` (command-line) is a lifesaver for quick JSON queries.