World Bank Intelligence MCP — 17,000+ Development Indicators, 217 Countries

Access the World Bank Open Data API through a fully MCP-compatible server. Query GDP, inflation, unemployment, poverty, education, and 25+ curated development indicators for 217 countries. Works directly with Claude Desktop, Cursor, GPT-4 plugins, and any MCP client. No API key required.

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What This Actor Does

The World Bank Open Data platform hosts over 17,000 development indicators spanning 217 countries from 1960 to the present. This Apify actor wraps the public World Bank API in a production-grade MCP server, making it trivially easy for AI assistants to access macroeconomic intelligence.

In batch mode, you specify an indicator, a list of countries, and a year range. The actor fetches the data, normalises it into clean records, and pushes results to the Apify dataset.

In MCP server mode, the actor starts a lightweight HTTP server on port 4321. Your AI assistant can call any of the 5 MCP tools in real time. The server runs until you stop the actor (up to 24 hours per run).

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Curated Indicator Library (27 Indicators)

Rather than memorising obscure World Bank indicator IDs, use the human-readable keys below. The actor also accepts raw WB indicator IDs directly (e.g. NY.GDP.MKTP.CD).

Economic Indicators

Key	World Bank ID	Description
gdp	NY.GDP.MKTP.CD	GDP (current US$)
gdp_growth	NY.GDP.MKTP.KD.ZG	GDP growth rate (% annual)
gdp_per_capita	NY.GDP.PCAP.CD	GDP per capita (current US$)
inflation	FP.CPI.TOTL.ZG	Inflation, CPI (% annual)
unemployment	SL.UEM.TOTL.ZS	Unemployment rate (% of labor force)
fdi	BX.KLT.DINV.CD.WD	Foreign direct investment, net inflows
exports	NE.EXP.GNFS.CD	Exports of goods and services (current US$)
imports	NE.IMP.GNFS.CD	Imports of goods and services (current US$)
trade_percent_gdp	NE.TRD.GNFS.ZS	Trade as % of GDP
current_account	BN.CAB.XOKA.CD	Current account balance (BoP, current US$)
debt_gdp	GC.DOD.TOTL.GD.ZS	Central government debt (% of GDP)
reserves	FI.RES.TOTL.CD	Total reserves including gold (current US$)

Social Indicators

Key	World Bank ID	Description
population	SP.POP.TOTL	Total population
pop_growth	SP.POP.GROW	Population growth rate (% annual)
life_expectancy	SP.DYN.LE00.IN	Life expectancy at birth (years)
infant_mortality	SP.DYN.IMRT.IN	Infant mortality rate (per 1,000 live births)
literacy_rate	SE.ADT.LITR.ZS	Adult literacy rate (% ages 15+)
school_enrollment	SE.PRM.ENRR	Primary school enrollment, gross (%)
poverty_rate	SI.POV.NAHC	Poverty headcount at national poverty lines (%)
gini	SI.POV.GINI	Gini index (income inequality)
internet_users	IT.NET.USER.ZS	Internet users (% of population)
mobile_subscriptions	IT.CEL.SETS.P2	Mobile cellular subscriptions (per 100 people)

Environmental Indicators

Key	World Bank ID	Description
co2_emissions	EN.ATM.CO2E.KT	CO2 emissions (kilotonnes)
renewable_energy	EG.FEC.RNEW.ZS	Renewable energy consumption (% of total)
electricity_access	EG.ELC.ACCS.ZS	Access to electricity (% of population)
forest_area	AG.LND.FRST.ZS	Forest area (% of land area)
agri_land	AG.LND.AGRI.ZS	Agricultural land (% of land area)

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MCP Tools

get_indicator

Get time-series data for a specific indicator across one or more countries.

{
  "name": "get_indicator",
  "arguments": {
    "indicator": "gdp_growth",
    "countries": ["US", "CN", "IN", "BR"],
    "years": 10
  }
}

Returns an array of records with fields: country, country_code, indicator, indicator_id, year, value, unit, source.

compare_countries

Side-by-side comparison of multiple countries on a single indicator.

{
  "name": "compare_countries",
  "arguments": {
    "countries": ["US", "DE", "JP", "KR"],
    "indicator": "debt_gdp",
    "years": 5
  }
}

search_indicators

Discover World Bank indicators by keyword. Returns indicator ID, name, topics, and whether it has a curated key.

{
  "name": "search_indicators",
  "arguments": {
    "query": "renewable energy",
    "limit": 15
  }
}

get_country_profile

Snapshot of key stats for a country — GDP, per capita income, inflation, unemployment, population, life expectancy, poverty, internet access, and CO2 emissions (most recent year).

{
  "name": "get_country_profile",
  "arguments": {
    "country_code": "IN",
    "indicators": ["gdp", "gdp_per_capita", "inflation", "population", "life_expectancy"]
  }
}

list_indicators

List all 27 curated indicators with keys, World Bank IDs, names, and categories.

{
  "name": "list_indicators",
  "arguments": {}
}

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Input Parameters

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
indicator	string	gdp	Curated key or raw WB indicator ID
countries	array	["US","CN","DE"]	ISO-2 country codes
years	integer	10	Most-recent years to retrieve (max 60)
serveMcp	boolean	false	Start MCP server on port 4321

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Output Record Schema

{
  "country": "United States",
  "country_code": "USA",
  "indicator": "GDP growth (%)",
  "indicator_id": "NY.GDP.MKTP.KD.ZG",
  "year": "2023",
  "value": 2.5,
  "unit": "",
  "source": "worldbank.org"
}

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Example Use Cases

Q: How fast is India's economy growing compared to China?

Tool: get_indicator
indicator: gdp_growth, countries: [IN, CN], years: 10

Q: Which G20 country has the highest debt-to-GDP ratio?

Tool: compare_countries
indicator: debt_gdp, countries: [US, JP, DE, FR, IT, GB, CN, IN, BR, CA], years: 1

Q: What is Kenya's current economic and social profile?

Tool: get_country_profile
country_code: KE

Q: Find indicators related to climate change.

Tool: search_indicators
query: climate change

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Country Code Reference

Use ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 codes. Common examples:

Code	Country	Code	Country
US	United States	CN	China
DE	Germany	IN	India
GB	United Kingdom	BR	Brazil
JP	Japan	ZA	South Africa
FR	France	MX	Mexico
AU	Australia	KR	South Korea
CA	Canada	SG	Singapore
NG	Nigeria	EG	Egypt
ID	Indonesia	PK	Pakistan
TR	Turkey	SA	Saudi Arabia

Use "all" to retrieve data for all 217 countries. Note that results may contain many records and take longer to process.

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API Details

• Data source: World Bank Open Data — https://api.worldbank.org/v2/
• Auth: None required
• Rate limits: None officially documented; actor respects the API with per-request async calls
• Coverage: 217 countries, 17,000+ indicators, annual data back to 1960 in many series
• Update frequency: Monthly by World Bank

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MCP Server Mode

Set serveMcp: true to start the MCP server. Configure your MCP client:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "worldbank": {
      "url": "http://<apify-run-hostname>:4321"
    }
  }
}

The server stays alive for up to 24 hours per run. Use the Apify API to start/stop on demand.

Endpoints:

• GET /mcp/tools — returns all 5 tool schemas
• POST /mcp/call — invoke a tool with {"name": "...", "arguments": {...}}
• GET /health — liveness check

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Error Handling

All tool functions catch exceptions and return a structured error record rather than crashing:

[{"_meta": {"error": "...", "fallback_tried": true}}]

Invalid country codes return empty data (World Bank returns no records for unknown codes). Invalid indicator keys that are not in the curated library are passed through to the WB API as raw IDs.

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License

World Bank data is available under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (CC BY 4.0). Actor code is MIT-licensed.