databank.worldbank.org

What is DataBank?

DataBank is the World Bank's free online tool for exploring and visualizing development data. It hosts collections of time-series indicators drawn from the World Bank and other official international sources, and lets you build custom queries, then turn the results into tables, charts, and maps that you can save, embed, or share.

What you can do with it

• Browse by topic — agriculture, climate change, education, energy, health, poverty, gender, infrastructure, and more.
• Filter by source to switch between World Bank databases and other agency databases.
• Preview a database before committing to a query.
• Generate outputs as tables, charts, or maps rather than downloading raw files only.
• Save reports and datasets for later, and embed or share the results.

Who tends to use it

Students and researchers who need citable cross-country indicators; journalists and analysts comparing countries or tracking trends over time; and policy or NGO staff who want a quick visual rather than a full statistical package. The interface is aimed at people who need answers, not at econometricians doing heavy modeling.

A practical example

Suppose you are writing about electricity access in Sub-Saharan Africa. You would pick the relevant indicator, select the countries and years, and generate a line chart or map for your draft — then save the query so you can refresh it when the underlying data changes.

Trade-offs to weigh

Your next step

Start with the World Development Indicators collection, since it is the broadest single entry point, then narrow to a specific topic or source. Before citing anything, check the "last updated" date shown for that database — DataBank lists separate update dates per collection, and mixing vintages across indicators is the most common error in quick analyses. For the underlying methodology and definitions, the World Bank's main site at The World Bank is the place to confirm how an indicator is constructed.

How do I create a custom query to compare development indicators across countries?

Use DataBank's Create Report workflow: pick a database (usually World Development Indicators), choose countries, choose indicators, then generate a table, chart or map you can save or embed. It is built for exactly this comparison task, so you do not need to download raw files first.

A practical sequence

1. Start at DataBank and open Create Report.
2. Select a database. For broad country comparison, World Development Indicators is the default choice; it is described as the primary World Bank collection of development indicators, compiled from officially recognized international sources.
3. Choose your countries as a group (for example, a region or a set of peer economies).
4. Choose your indicators one at a time. Keep the list short at first — two or three indicators is usually enough to spot patterns.
5. Choose time: a single year for a snapshot, or a range for trends.
6. Generate the output as a table, chart or map, then save, embed or share it.

Choosing the right output

A concrete example

If you are briefing a team on education and income, select a set of comparable countries, add one education indicator and one income indicator, and view a scatter or paired chart across a ten-year range. You get both the level and the direction of change without building a spreadsheet.

Practical trade-offs

• More indicators ≠ better analysis. Each added series makes the chart harder to read; split into multiple reports instead.
• Coverage varies by country and year. Some indicators have gaps for smaller or lower-income economies, so check the table before trusting a chart.
• Comparability needs care. National definitions and reporting years differ, so treat cross-country gaps as signals to investigate, not final verdicts.

If you need governance-specific data, note that DataBank also hosts the Worldwide Governance Indicators as a separate database, and Statistical Capacity Indicators for statistical-system comparisons.

Next step: open Create Report, pick World Development Indicators, and build a single two-indicator, ten-country table first. Once that reads cleanly, save it and expand.

What is the difference between World Development Indicators and other databases like International Debt Statistics?

World Development Indicators (WDI) is the broad, cross-topic collection in DataBank, while International Debt Statistics (IDS) is a narrower database focused specifically on external debt and financial flows. WDI is the World Bank's primary compilation of development indicators, drawn from officially recognized international sources and covering national, regional and global estimates. It spans topics such as health, gender, economy and social data, alongside external debt and financial flows. IDS exists as its own separate database for debt and financial flows, even though those same debt and financial flow series continue to be included in WDI.

In practice, this means WDI is the better starting point when you want to compare countries across many dimensions, such as education, health and poverty together, or when you need a single consistent source for a broad development profile. IDS is the better choice when debt is the subject itself: you want the dedicated debt database with its own structure and detail rather than a general indicator collection.

A useful next step is to decide by question type: if your question is "how does country A compare with country B on health, education and income," use WDI; if it is "how much external debt does country A owe and to whom," go to IDS. You can browse both, along with other World Bank and agency databases, through DataBank, where you can build queries and generate tables, charts and maps, then save, embed or share them.

How can I embed or share a DataBank chart or table in a report or presentation?

DataBank is built for exactly this: you create a query, generate a table, chart or map, then save, embed or share it. There is no separate export product to buy — the sharing options sit inside the report you build. The practical path is: pick a database (World Development Indicators is the flagship, with national, regional and global estimates), choose countries, indicators and years, run the query, then use the save/share controls on the finished view.

What each route is good for

Choosing between them

• If the number may change (WDI was last updated 13 July 2026, and other collections on the site carry their own update dates), embed or link. A screenshot in a board pack can quietly go stale.
• If the audience is offline or the venue has unreliable Wi-Fi, take a static capture and cite the database, indicator code, countries and year alongside it.
• If you need a custom look, pull the series into your own charting tool rather than embedding — but then you own the refresh.

A concrete scenario

An analyst preparing a quarterly briefing selects three countries and one indicator in World Development Indicators, builds a line chart, saves the report so next quarter's update can be re-run, and embeds the chart in the team wiki. The slide deck gets a static image of the same chart with the database name and extraction date in the footnote. That combination gives live figures where they help and a stable record where they don't.

Next step

Open the database you need, build the smallest query that answers your question, save it with a descriptive name, then test the embed in the actual destination — a wiki page, a slide, or an email — before you rely on it. Check the "What's New" list on DataBank so you know whether the series you embedded has been revised since you captured it.

Which topics and sources are available in DataBank for analyzing specific development issues?

DataBank organizes its content around two filters: Topic and Source. You pick a topic (or browse all), then choose a database from the World Bank's own collections or from other agency sources. That two-step structure is the main thing to understand — the topic filter narrows the field, but the actual data comes from the database you select.

Topics available as filters

• Agriculture & Rural Development
• Aid Effectiveness
• Climate Change
• Economic Policy & External Debt
• Education
• Energy & Mining
• Environment
• Financial Sector
• Gender
• Health
• Infrastructure
• Labor & Social Protection
• Poverty
• Private Sector
• Public Sector
• Science & Technology
• Social Development
• Urban Development

Sources

Sources split into World Bank Databases and Other Agency Databases. The flagship World Bank database is World Development Indicators (WDI), described as the primary World Bank collection of development indicators, compiled from officially recognized international sources, with national, regional and global estimates. WDI also absorbs external debt and financial flows data that formerly sat under Global Development Finance; that material now also appears as International Debt Statistics (IDS) in its own database. Other named World Bank databases include Statistical Capacity Indicators, Worldwide Governance Indicators, Quarterly Public Sector Debt, and the Joint External Debt Hub.

How to use this for a specific issue

Say you are scoping a report on whether electrification tracks with household income in a set of countries. You would filter by Energy & Mining or Poverty, open WDI as the source, then build a query that pulls access-to-electricity and income indicators for the same countries and years. From there you generate a table, chart or map and save or embed the result.

Three practical decision criteria:

• Breadth vs. depth. WDI is the broadest single starting point across economy, health, gender, social and debt data. Narrower databases such as Statistical Capacity Indicators or Worldwide Governance Indicators go deeper on one theme.
• Comparability. Because WDI is compiled from officially recognized international sources with regional and global aggregates, it suits cross-country comparison. Other agency databases may follow different definitions or coverage, so check the metadata glossary before mixing sources in one chart.
• Freshness. Databases are updated on different schedules. The page lists recent update dates for Worldwide Governance Indicators, Quarterly Public Sector Debt, the Joint External Debt Hub and WDI, so confirm the last-updated date for whichever database you rely on.

For a quick start, open the database preview for WDI and check the metadata glossary entries for your indicators before building the query — that step prevents most mismatched comparisons later.

How often is the data in DataBank updated and where does it come from?

DataBank itself is a delivery platform, not a single dataset, so update frequency and origin depend on which database you open. The site shows a "Last Updated" date per database, and that date is the reliable answer rather than any blanket schedule.

Where the data comes from

DataBank aggregates collections from two broad groups, as its own filter options indicate:

• World Bank databases — the flagship being World Development Indicators (WDI), described on the page as the primary World Bank collection of development indicators, compiled from officially recognized international sources, with national, regional and global estimates.
• Other agency databases — statistics produced by outside organizations and hosted alongside the World Bank collections.

So the underlying numbers usually originate with national statistical agencies, central banks and international bodies; the World Bank compiles and harmonizes them rather than collecting everything itself.

How often it updates

There is no uniform refresh cycle. Each database carries its own "Last Updated" date, and the page's "What's New" list illustrates how uneven this is — some databases were refreshed within days or weeks of each other, while others sat months apart. Practical implications:

• For headline development indicators, expect periodic (often annual) refreshes tied to when source agencies release new figures.
• For debt and governance-related collections, updates can be more frequent and are announced individually.
• A recent "Last Updated" date means the database was reloaded, not that every country and year has fresh values.

A quick way to judge whether it fits your use

Next step

Open the specific database you need, check its "Last Updated" date and its metadata/glossary entry for the named source, then confirm the series definition matches your question before citing it. If you are comparing DataBank with other open data portals, the World Bank's main site is The World Bank and its open data catalog is World Bank Open Data.