World Bank Development Indicators Scraper

Extract development indicator data from the World Bank Open Data API — one of the world's most comprehensive free sources of economic and social statistics covering 200+ countries and 16,000+ indicators spanning 60+ years.

Features

• Get Indicator Data — fetch time-series data for any World Bank indicator across one or more countries
• Search Indicators — discover available indicators by keyword (GDP, poverty, education, health, etc.)
• List Countries — retrieve all countries with region, income level, and capital city metadata
• Compare Countries — compare multiple countries side-by-side on a single indicator

What Data Is Available?

The World Bank API provides data on:

• Economic indicators — GDP, GDP per capita, inflation, trade, debt
• Population & demographics — total population, growth rates, age structures
• Education — literacy rates, school enrollment, government spending on education
• Health — child mortality, life expectancy, access to healthcare
• Energy & Environment — access to electricity, CO2 emissions, renewable energy
• Poverty & Inequality — poverty headcount, Gini index, income shares

Input

Field	Type	Description
mode	select	Operation mode (see below)
indicatorCode	string	World Bank indicator code (e.g. NY.GDP.PCAP.CD)
countryCodes	string	Comma-separated ISO2 country codes (e.g. US,CN,IN,DE,BR)
searchQuery	string	Keyword for searchIndicators mode
startYear	integer	Start year for time-series (1960–2030)
endYear	integer	End year for time-series (1960–2030)
maxItems	integer	Maximum records to return (1–500, default 100)

Modes

Mode	Description
getIndicatorData	Fetch time-series data for one indicator across specified countries
searchIndicators	Search the 16,000+ available indicators by keyword
listCountries	List all countries with region, income level, and geographic metadata
compareCountries	Compare multiple countries on one indicator

Common Indicator Codes

Code	Description
NY.GDP.MKTP.CD	GDP (current US$)
SP.POP.TOTL	Population, total
NY.GDP.PCAP.CD	GDP per capita (current US$)
SH.DYN.MORT	Mortality rate, under-5 (per 1,000 live births)
SE.ADT.LITR.ZS	Literacy rate, adult total (% of people ages 15+)
EG.ELC.ACCS.ZS	Access to electricity (% of population)
FP.CPI.TOTL.ZG	Inflation, consumer prices (annual %)
SL.UEM.TOTL.ZS	Unemployment, total (% of total labor force)
SI.POV.GINI	Gini index (income inequality)
SP.DYN.LE00.IN	Life expectancy at birth, total (years)

Output

Each record contains:

Field	Type	Description
countryCode	string	ISO 2-letter country code (e.g. US)
countryName	string	Full country name (e.g. United States)
indicatorCode	string	World Bank indicator code
indicatorName	string	Human-readable indicator name
year	integer	Year of the data point
value	number	Numeric value of the indicator
unit	string	Unit of measurement (if available)
scrapedAt	string	ISO 8601 timestamp when data was fetched

Example Output

{
  "countryCode": "US",
  "countryName": "United States",
  "indicatorCode": "NY.GDP.PCAP.CD",
  "indicatorName": "GDP per capita (current US$)",
  "year": 2023,
  "value": 81032.26,
  "scrapedAt": "2026-06-03T10:00:00+00:00"
}

Use Cases

• Economic research — compare GDP, inflation, or trade data across countries and decades
• Development analysis — track progress on education, health, and poverty indicators
• Data journalism — source verified World Bank data for articles and reports
• Academic projects — access decades of development statistics for research
• Business intelligence — understand market conditions across emerging economies

Data Source

All data comes from the World Bank Open Data API — a completely free, publicly accessible API requiring no authentication. The World Bank provides this data to promote transparency and support development research worldwide.

FAQs

Is an API key required? No. The World Bank API is completely free and requires no registration or API key.

How current is the data? Data is typically updated annually. Most indicators have data through 2022–2024 depending on the country and indicator.

What if a country has no data for an indicator? Records with null values are automatically excluded — only years with actual data are returned.

Can I get data for all countries at once? Yes — leave countryCodes blank to fetch data across all ~260 World Bank countries (increases run time).

How many indicators are available? The World Bank tracks 16,000+ indicators. Use searchIndicators mode to discover indicators by keyword.

What country codes should I use? Standard ISO 2-letter codes: US (United States), CN (China), IN (India), DE (Germany), BR (Brazil), GB (United Kingdom), JP (Japan), FR (France), AU (Australia), CA (Canada).