World Bank Data

Suitable task

Compare a development indicator across economies over a common period. The Indicators API exposes time-series indicators and documents country/indicator queries.[23][28]

Inputs to prepare

Choose country codes, an indicator code and a date range; specify the output format and page size. The documentation uses a colon for date ranges and defaults to 50 results per page.[28]

Expected research outputs

The API documentation offers JSON responses and CSV downloads packaged as ZIP files.[28] Suggested research output: a country-year table accompanied by the indicator definition, source, units and explicit missing-value markers.

Suggested steps — not executed here

1. Find one indicator in World Bank Data and read its definition and source; decide whether its unit and coverage match your question before selecting countries.
2. Open the basic-call documentation and adapt its country/indicator example to your country codes and common date range. Select JSON for a programmatic response or the documented CSV download option.
3. When retrieving data in your own environment, inspect pagination and collect every required page. Keep missing values as missing rather than silently turning them into zero.
4. Compare like years and units, retain the retrieval date and source notes, and check the dataset-specific license before sharing an extract. The workflow was not executed here.

Access, cost and license boundaries

Documentation was publicly readable without payment. The retrieved general terms defer some dataset/API uses to specific terms on the relevant material page; a universal free commercial-use license was not established.[29] Paid products, quotas and any particular dataset license remain unchecked.

Limitations and unchecked conditions

The basic-call documentation says requests cannot currently be sorted.[28] Editorial caution: country definitions, missing years and revisions can undermine a like-for-like comparison. No indicator endpoint was executed and no completeness audit was performed.

Choose another research route when…

• Our World in Data: Consider this route when you need chart context and accompanying explanation before handling the raw data; check its original-provider licenses.[25]
• FRED: Consider this route when the task is organized around economic series and revision dates rather than a country/indicator query.[22]

Official evidence for these notes

Source retrieval date: 2026-09-11

• [22] World Bank Data
• [23] World Bank Data
• [25] World Bank Data
• [28] World Bank Data
• [29] World Bank Data

Pending editorial approval; not approved for search indexing.