Understand the world.
Understand the data.

A little more perspective.

A single statistic rarely tells the whole story. World Data Lab brings context to global public indicators: what they measure, how they change and how countries compare.

This is an independent data visualization project designed and developed by Saviano Design. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by or an official service of the World Bank.

Data sources

The primary source is World Development Indicators, accessed through the World Bank Indicators API V2. The underlying data is compiled from national statistical offices, international organizations and World Bank estimates. Source organizations and methods differ by indicator.

Each indicator page links to its definition and source. World Bank aggregate values are used directly on the homepage; country values are never summed or averaged to invent a global measure.

World Bank datasets are generally available under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0, subject to the applicable dataset terms and exceptions. Consult the original dataset and third-party notices before redistributing data.

How the numbers are presented

Latest means latest available

For each country and indicator, we select the most recent non-missing observation returned by the source. Its year is shown alongside the value. This year can differ between countries and between indicators.

Missing observations stay missing

Missing values are displayed as a dash or an unavailable state. Charts leave gaps for missing years. We do not fill, interpolate or treat missing values as zero. Genuine zero and negative observations are retained.

Measuring change

For positive baseline amounts such as population and current-dollar GDP, relative change is (latest − baseline) ÷ baseline × 100. For percentage indicators, we report the absolute difference in percentage points. Life expectancy changes are measured in years.

“What changed?” uses the exact observation ten years before the latest value. If either observation is missing, the comparison is unavailable. Chart summaries use the same ten-year calculation; range controls change the visible chart, not this labeled summary.

Comparing countries

The comparison table shows each country’s latest value and its actual year. When two countries are selected, absolute differences are shown only when both latest observations refer to the same year. “pp” means percentage points. When three or four countries are selected, compare their values directly in the table and chart.

Rounding and history

Compact labels use K for thousands, M for millions, B for billions and T for trillions. Data tables retain up to two decimal places. Calculations use the underlying unrounded values. Historical coverage begins in 1960 where source data exists; not every series starts in that year.

What the data cannot tell you

• Current-dollar GDP and GDP per capita reflect inflation and exchange-rate changes. They are not purchasing-power or inflation-adjusted measures.
• National averages can conceal differences within a country. These indicators do not establish causal relationships.
• Statistical definitions, reporting quality and release schedules differ. National data may be revised retrospectively.
• The directory follows World Bank country and economy classifications, including territories. Regional and income aggregates are excluded.
• Ranked tables with mixed observation years are not same-year league tables. Higher values are not automatically better.
• Related countries are selected by geographic proximity of reported capitals within the same World Bank region, not by statistical similarity.

Snapshot and coverage

Annual data is retrieved during a build when the saved snapshot is more than seven days old. Country metadata is refreshed after thirty days. A manual refresh can update both earlier. Public pages remain available from a saved snapshot during temporary API failures; the retrieval date stays visible.

This site does not fetch the World Bank API on every page view. The following retrieval timestamps describe the data used to generate the current version.

A simple, private experience

World Data Lab has no accounts, advertising cookies or analytics trackers. Country selections may appear in a shareable URL. Data requests are served by the site’s hosting provider, which may process standard request logs. Public source links take you to external websites with their own policies.