UNESCO UIS Statistics Scraper

Export official education, literacy, learning, science, culture, and SDG observations from the UNESCO Institute for Statistics Data API. Query multiple indicator and geography codes in one keyless run.

What you get

• One normalized row per indicator, geography, year, and published dimension
• Numeric values, magnitude, qualifiers, footnotes, and indicator metadata
• ISO-3 or UIS geography filtering with bounded result limits
• Direct first-party JSON without a browser, proxy, or source API key

Output fields

Typical fields include indicatorId, indicator_name, indicator_theme, geoUnit, year, value, magnitude, qualifier, footnotes, source_url, and source.

Example output

{"indicatorId":"READ.PRIMARY","indicator_name":"Reading proficiency at primary level","geoUnit":"USA","year":2022,"value":41.2,"magnitude":"PERCENT","qualifier":null,"source_url":"https://api.uis.unesco.org"}

Input parameters

Parameter	Description
indicators	One or more UIS indicator IDs, such as READ.PRIMARY.
geoUnits	ISO-3 country or UIS region codes.
startYear	First observation year to include.
endYear	Last observation year to include.
maxResults	Maximum observations saved and charged.

Use cases

SDG 4 dashboards, education policy research, cross-country comparisons, learning-outcome analysis, indicator archives, release monitoring, and reproducible development datasets.

Limitations

Indicators have different units, methods, coverage, and update schedules. Similar labels do not guarantee comparability. Unknown codes can return no rows, while some country-year combinations are unavailable. Preserve qualifiers, footnotes, and metadata and never treat missing observations as zero.

Compared to alternatives

The Actor packages the official UIS API into scheduled Apify datasets and starts at $2 per 1,000 saved observations, declining to $1 per 1,000. Try the UNESCO UIS Statistics Scraper, browse all Thirdwatch Actors, or read the Thirdwatch UNESCO guide.

FAQ

Do I need a UNESCO API key? No. This integration uses a public keyless endpoint.

Where do indicator codes come from? Use the identifiers published by UNESCO UIS; the Actor returns indicator metadata with matching observations.

Open the input form or review recent runs.

Verify policy or funding conclusions against UNESCO definitions and methodology. This independent Actor is not affiliated with or endorsed by UNESCO.

Last verified: 2026-07