UK Data Service Data Explorer Guides

Guide to World Bank World Development Indicators

INTRODUCTION

The World Banks World Development Indicators (WDI) contains statistical data for well over 1000 development indicators. The extensive collection of development data includes social, economic, financial, natural resources and environmental indicators covering the period from 1960 onwards for over 200 economies.

Main topics

The main topics in the WDI are as follows:

People

  • Population and demographics
  • Labor and employment
  • Poverty and income distribution
  • Education
  • Health

Environment

  • Land use and agricultural production
  • Energy production and use
  • Urbanization
  • Emissions
  • Adjusted savings

Economy

  • National accounts (local currency)
  • National accounts (US$)
  • Derived national accounts
  • Purchasing power parity
  • Trade
  • Government finance
  • Monetary
  • Balance of payments
  • External debt

States & Markets

  • Investment climate
  • Business environment
  • Financial depth
  • Tax and trade policies
  • Defense expenditures and arms trade
  • Military expenditures and arms trade
  • Transport, power, and communications
  • Information and technology

Global Links

  • Investment and trade
  • Financial flows
  • Development assistance and aid
  • Migration
  • Travel and tourism 

Access World bank data

As a result of the World Bank's Open Data initiative the World Bank WDI dataset hosted by the UK Data Service are now freely available to all. Please refer to the Terms of Use for Datasets in The World Bank's Data Catalog.

User RESOURCES