World Bank Open Data Scraper

Extract development indicators and economic data from the World Bank Open Data platform — 16,000+ indicators for 200+ countries spanning 60+ years of historical data. No API key or authentication required.

What you can scrape

• Countries — full list of 200+ World Bank countries and regions with geographic metadata
• Indicators catalog — searchable database of 16,000+ development indicators across topics like GDP, poverty, education, health, and environment
• Time-series data — annual values for any indicator and country combination (e.g., US GDP from 1960–2023)
• Cross-country comparisons — latest values for one indicator across all countries
• Topics — hierarchical topic taxonomy for browsing indicators

Input

Field	Type	Description
mode	select	What to fetch (see modes below)
query	string	Keyword search for indicators (mode=indicators)
topicId	integer	Filter indicators by topic number 1–21
sourceId	integer	Filter by data source ID
countryCode	string	ISO 2 or 3-letter country code (e.g. US, DEU, IN)
indicatorCode	string	World Bank indicator code (e.g. NY.GDP.MKTP.CD)
fromYear	integer	Start year for time series (default: 1960)
toYear	integer	End year for time series (default: 2024)
year	integer	Specific year for all-countries mode
incomeLevel	select	Filter countries by income level
region	select	Filter countries by World Bank region
maxItems	integer	Maximum records to return (1–10000)

Modes

• countries — List all World Bank countries with region, income level, lending type, and coordinates
• indicators — Search the indicator catalog by keyword, topic, or source
• byCountryIndicator — Annual time-series data for one country + one indicator
• byIndicatorAllCountries — Latest values across all countries for one indicator
• topics — List all 21 data topic categories

Common indicator codes

Indicator Code	Description
NY.GDP.MKTP.CD	GDP (current US$)
SP.POP.TOTL	Population, total
FP.CPI.TOTL.ZG	Inflation, consumer prices (annual %)
SL.UEM.TOTL.ZS	Unemployment, total (% of labor force)
SE.ADT.LITR.ZS	Literacy rate, adult total (%)
NY.GDP.PCAP.CD	GDP per capita (current US$)
SI.POV.DDAY	Poverty headcount ratio at $2.15/day (%)
SH.DYN.MORT	Mortality rate, under-5 (per 1,000 live births)

Output

Countries record

{
  "recordType": "country",
  "id": "US",
  "iso2Code": "US",
  "name": "United States",
  "capitalCity": "Washington D.C.",
  "longitude": -77.032,
  "latitude": 38.8895,
  "region": "North America",
  "regionId": "NAC",
  "incomeLevel": "High income",
  "incomeLevelId": "HIC",
  "lendingType": "Not classified",
  "lendingTypeId": "LNX",
  "scrapedAt": "2026-05-25T12:00:00+00:00"
}

Indicator record

{
  "recordType": "indicator",
  "id": "NY.GDP.MKTP.CD",
  "name": "GDP (current US$)",
  "source": "World Development Indicators",
  "description": "GDP at purchaser's prices is the sum of gross value added...",
  "topics": ["Economy & Growth"],
  "scrapedAt": "2026-05-25T12:00:00+00:00"
}

Data series record

{
  "recordType": "dataSeries",
  "indicatorCode": "NY.GDP.MKTP.CD",
  "indicatorName": "GDP (current US$)",
  "countryCode": "US",
  "countryName": "United States",
  "countryIso3": "USA",
  "date": "2022",
  "value": 25462700000000.0,
  "unit": "",
  "decimal": 0,
  "scrapedAt": "2026-05-25T12:00:00+00:00"
}

Example use cases

• Economic research — Download GDP, inflation, or unemployment trends for multiple countries
• Development analysis — Compare poverty rates, literacy, or health metrics globally
• Education dashboards — Pull enrollment ratios, teacher counts, or expenditure data
• Environmental tracking — CO2 emissions, forest coverage, renewable energy adoption
• Data journalism — Quick access to authoritative development statistics

FAQs

Do I need an API key? No. The World Bank Open Data API is completely free and requires no authentication.

How often is the data updated? World Bank data is typically updated annually. Most indicators have data through 2021–2023.

Can I get data for multiple countries at once? Yes — use byIndicatorAllCountries mode to get values for all 200+ countries for a single indicator.

What country codes should I use? Use standard ISO 2-letter codes (US, DE, CN) or ISO 3-letter codes (USA, DEU, CHN). You can also use World Bank codes visible in the countries listing.

Why are some values missing? Not all countries report every indicator. The scraper skips null/missing values to ensure data quality.

How do I find indicator codes? Use mode=indicators with a keyword search (e.g., query=GDP) to discover indicator codes, then use them in byCountryIndicator mode.