World Bank Indicators Scraper

World Bank Indicators Scraper

Scrape World Bank development indicators for any country and year range, up to a million data points per run. Each row returns the indicator code, country, year, and value in a flat, analysis-ready schema. Export to CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML.

The World Bank API requires navigating complex query builders and pagination for bulk data. This Actor reads the public indicator feeds directly, letting you pull decades of economic, social, and environmental data by indicator code and country. Get GDP, population, CO2 emissions, and thousands of other metrics without writing a single API call.

Who uses it	What they scrape World Bank for
Economists	Pull long-run GDP and inflation series for cross-country regression models.
Data journalists	Gather health, education, and climate indicators to support data-driven stories.
Academic researchers	Assemble panel datasets on poverty, trade, or governance for peer-reviewed papers.
Financial analysts	Track macro fundamentals like foreign direct investment and current account balances across emerging markets.

What it does

This Actor collects World Bank indicator values by code, country, and year range, and returns each observation as a flat row.

• 🌍 Global coverage: pull data for a single country, a semicolon-separated list, or every country at once with "all".
• 📅 Year range filter: set a start and end year to collect only the observations you need, from 1960 to 2030.
• 📊 Flat output schema: each row is one indicator-country-year-value record, ready for pivot tables and statistical software.
• ⚙️ Flexible indicator input: feed any valid World Bank indicator code like NY.GDP.MKTP.CD, SP.POP.TOTL, or EN.ATM.CO2E.KT.

Results export to CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML, or straight from the API.

What you can do with World Bank data

📈 Build a macro dashboard.

A financial analyst pulls GDP, inflation, and unemployment for the G20 countries over the last decade to feed a country-risk dashboard.

🌱 Track climate and environment data.

A policy researcher collects CO2 emissions, forest area, and renewable energy consumption for all countries to evaluate progress toward climate goals.

📚 Assemble a research dataset.

An academic downloads maternal mortality, literacy rates, and school enrollment for low-income countries to study the relationship between education and health outcomes.

🗞️ Fact-check a story with data.

A data journalist pulls foreign aid flows and poverty headcounts for a feature on development effectiveness.

Why choose this scraper

	What you get
No API coding	Point the Actor at an indicator code and get structured data without building queries.
Bulk extraction	Collect up to a million indicator values in a single run for large panel datasets.
Consistent schema	Every row follows the same flat structure, making it easy to merge with other sources.
Full historical depth	Access data back to 1960 for long-term trend analysis and forecasting.

How it compares

This Actor focuses exclusively on structured World Bank indicator data, while the competitor below targets a different data source entirely.

Feature	ParseForge	Fast YouTube Trending Scraper API
World Bank indicator data	Yes, any indicator by code	Not listed
Country and year filtering	Yes, by ISO code and year range	Not listed
Bulk extraction up to 1M rows	Yes	Not listed
No API key required	Yes	Not listed

Configure the run

Drive the Actor with a World Bank indicator code, country codes, and a year range. Filters apply as data is read so only matching observations land in your dataset. The Input tab lists every parameter.

A first run with the defaults:

{
 "indicator": "NY.GDP.MKTP.CD",
 "country": "all",
 "startYear": 2020,
 "endYear": 2025,
 "maxItems": 10
}

A larger pull:

{
 "indicator": "NY.GDP.MKTP.CD",
 "country": "all",
 "startYear": 2020,
 "endYear": 2025,
 "maxItems": 200
}

Pricing

Pay-per-result: $0.0085 per result collected. You pay only for the results written to your dataset.

Results collected	Approximate cost
100 results	$0.85
1,000 results	$8.50
10,000 results	$85.00

New Apify accounts start with $5 in free credit.

Free users

Free-plan runs return up to 10 results as a preview. Upgrade your Apify plan to collect up to 1,000,000 results per run.

Run it

1. Create a free Apify account with $5 in credit.
2. Open the World Bank Indicators Scraper.
3. Set your inputs and any filters, then click Start.
4. Export the results as CSV, Excel, JSON, or XML from the Dataset tab.

Run it programmatically through the Apify API (run-sync-get-dataset-items) or the ApifyClient for JavaScript and Python.

Use with AI agents (MCP)

Give an AI agent live access to World Bank through the Model Context Protocol. Add the Actor to Claude, Cursor, or any MCP client:

$claude mcp add --transport http apify "https://mcp.apify.com?tools=parseforge/worldbank-indicators-scraper"

Then prompt it in plain language to run the scraper and read back the results.

Troubleshooting

I get no results for my indicator code.

Verify the indicator code on the World Bank Data Catalog. Some codes have changed over time. Also check that your year range overlaps with the indicator's available data. Try a well-known code like NY.GDP.MKTP.CD to confirm the Actor is working.

The dataset has missing values for some country-year combinations.

Missing values are normal. The World Bank does not have data for every indicator, country, and year. The Actor returns null for unavailable observations. Filter them out in your analysis or choose a different indicator with broader coverage.

I entered multiple country codes but only got data for the first one.

Separate country codes with semicolons, not commas. The correct format is US;CN;BR. If you used commas, the Actor may interpret the input as a single invalid code.

The run takes a long time or times out.

Reduce the maxItems limit or narrow your year range. Requesting all countries from 1960 to 2030 for a widely available indicator can produce a very large dataset. Start with a smaller test run to estimate the volume.

FAQ

Question	Answer
Where do I find the indicator codes?	Browse the World Bank Data Catalog at data.worldbank.org/indicator. Each indicator page shows its code in the URL and near the title. Common examples include NY.GDP.MKTP.CD for GDP and SP.POP.TOTL for total population.
Can I get data for all countries at once?	Yes. Set the country input to "all" and the Actor will return data for every country and aggregate region available for that indicator.
What format does the output come in?	The Actor returns a flat dataset you can export to CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML. Each row contains the indicator code, country code, country name, year, and value.
How far back does the data go?	You can set the start year as early as 1960. Availability varies by indicator and country, so some series may start later.
Can I scrape multiple indicators in one run?	The Actor processes one indicator code per run. To collect multiple indicators, run the Actor once per code and merge the datasets afterward.
What are the country codes?	Use ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 codes like US, CN, BR, or IN. You can pass a single code or multiple codes separated by semicolons, like US;CN;BR.
Is there a limit on how many data points I can collect?	You can set maxItems up to 1,000,000 per run. The actual number returned depends on how many country-year combinations exist for your chosen indicator and year range.
Does this Actor require an API key?	No. It reads the World Bank's public data API directly. You do not need to register an application or obtain a key.

Related actors

Browse the full ParseForge collection for more scrapers.

🆘 Need help? Email parseforge@protonmail.com with your run ID, your input, and what you expected.

⚠️ Disclaimer. This Actor is unofficial and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by The World Bank Group. It collects only publicly available data. You are responsible for using the collected data in compliance with the source's terms of service and applicable data-protection laws, including GDPR, CCPA, and PIPL. Do not use it to collect personal data unlawfully.