World Bank Open Data

The World Bank Open Data platform serves as a centralized repository for global development data, offering free and open access to over 3000 indicators across more than 200 economies. On the "Countries and Economies" page, users can browse a complete alphabetical list of nations, territories, and regional groupings—from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe—each linked to dedicated profiles containing historical and current statistics. The platform’s core function is to provide reliable, comparable data for research, policy analysis, and decision-making in fields such as economics, health, education, agriculture, environment, infrastructure, and poverty reduction. Users can search for specific countries or use filters by region (e.g., Sub-Saharan Africa, East Asia & Pacific) or income group (low, middle, high) to narrow down datasets. For each chosen economy, the system aggregates key development indicators: GDP per capita (current US$), population growth rate, life expectancy at birth, literacy rate, CO2 emissions per capita, access to electricity, prevalence of undernourishment, government spending on education as a percentage of GDP, and many more. The data is sourced from official national statistics agencies, international organizations (such as the IMF, WHO, ILO, and UNESCO), and the World Bank’s own research. Beyond simple country-level lookup, the platform offers advanced tools. The "DataBank" allows users to create custom tables, charts, and maps by selecting multiple indicators, time series (1960 to present), and economies. These visualizations can be exported as CSV, Excel, PDF, or image files, and embedded into external websites or reports. The "Microdata" catalog provides access to raw survey data (e.g., Living Standards Measurement Studies) for researchers requiring hou