Wikimedia Bugzilla is closed!

There are certain pieces of data that have language-independent and absolutely objective values.  For instance, population of a city doesn't depend on whether you write about it in English, Russian or German and is merely a number (plus, preferably, date of census.)

Therefore, I think Wikipedia would benefit from a centralized language-independent database of _facts_, because:
- one wouldn't need to update dozens of language sections just because a number has changed;
- always up-to-date, because new data is propagated from central data repository quick (i.e. within minutes/hours/days);
- no need for ad-hoc automation (bots), which cover only relatively few cases and work only in some language sections;
- less error-prone: it is possible to put in a wrong number by hands, especially if you update a hundred of articles because e.g. of a new census;
- a little more concise page histories, because edits for number update would be gone.

For instance, something like {{fact:Cities/Vienna/Population}} would be automatically substituted on page rendering with the number taken from centralized database already converted to local format.  E.g. 1,660,534 in English, 1.660.534 in German or 1 660 534 in Russian section.  If the number in the database is updated, all pages in all language sections that use the value are removed from the cache and re-rendered.

This is not easy task, but I think advantages for Wikipedia are well worth it.