World Bank Open Data (2024)

FAQs

Is the World Bank open data reliable? ›

The application of internationally accepted standards and norms results in a consistent, reliable source of information.

The Data Catalog is a listing of available World Bank datasets, including databases such Africa Development Indicators (ADI) and World Development Indicators (WDI), pre-formatted tables, and reports.

The latest data together with timely forecasts makes WorldData one of the fastest and most reliable sources of economic data.

Lack of Transparency and Accountability: The World Bank has also been criticized for its lack of transparency and accountability. Critics argue that the Bank has not been transparent in its decision-making processes, and that it has not adequately engaged with civil society and other stakeholders in its operations.

Some countries do not regularly report data due to conflict, lack of statistical capacity, or other reasons (e.g. Somalia, North Korea, and some Caribbean and Pacific island economies).

The organizations that make up the World Bank Group are owned by the governments of member nations, which have the ultimate decision-making power within the organizations on all matters, including policy, financial or membership issues.

Professor Max Roser

Max is the founder of Our World in Data and began working on this free online publication in 2011. Today, he serves as the publication's editor and leads the team as its co-director.

The World Bank Group makes data publicly available according to open data standards and licenses datasets under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (CC-BY 4.0). Many datasets are available under other licenses.

It is reliable.

A consistent and precise metric makes us more confident in what it tells us about the world.

Critics of the World Bank argue that structural adjustment loans are a mechanism of forcing free market economics on countries through coercion. Countries with a debt crisis, whatever their other characteristics, agree to the bank's package of legal and economic reforms, and the bank agrees to lend them money.

Why are people against the World Bank? ›

The World Bank is often criticised as a tool for free-market nations that use structural adjustment loans as a mechanism of forcing free market economics on countries through coercion. Contrary to the myth that is popular in the west, it is the poor of the world that financed the rich and not the other way round.

Why has the World Bank failed? The World Bank has admitted that some of its projects have performed dismally and failed to address poverty and development issues in developing countries. This failure can't be blamed entirely on the Bank. It is also partly the fault of aid recipient countries.

Our World in Data has been cited in academic scientific journals, medicine and global health journals, and social science journals. The Washington Post, The New York Times, and The Economist have used Our World in Data as a source.

Part of the Internal Justice Services of the World Bank Group (WBG), Peer Review Services (PRS) offers WBG employees the opportunity to receive an independent, objective and impartial review, by a panel of WBG peers, of whether an employment-related decision, action or inaction by management was consistent with the ...

There's no need to share your account login details, PIN or passwords with the authorised company you have chosen. As long as you keep your details secure, Open Banking is safe to use.

The data are consistent, up-to-date, and well formatted, and the U.N. is a reliable source of official data.