Programmatic Access to Data and Statistics from the World Bank API

Search and download data from the World Bank Data API. Includes support for mutliple languages, access to annual, quarterly, and monthly data.

wbstats: An R package for searching and downloading data from the World Bank API

You can install the latest release version from CRAN with

install.packages("wbstats")

or

The latest development version from github with

remotes::install_github("pachadotdev/wbstats")

Downloading data from the World Bank

library(wbstats)

# Population for every country from 1960 until present
d <- wb_data("SP.POP.TOTL")
    
head(d)

#> # A tibble: 6 × 9
#>   iso2c iso3c country    date SP.POP.TOTL unit  obs_status footnote last_updated
#>   <chr> <chr> <chr>     <dbl>       <dbl> <chr> <chr>      <chr>    <date>      
#> 1 AF    AFG   Afghanis…  2024    42647492 <NA>  <NA>       <NA>     2025-07-01  
#> 2 AF    AFG   Afghanis…  2023    41454761 <NA>  <NA>       <NA>     2025-07-01  
#> 3 AF    AFG   Afghanis…  2022    40578842 <NA>  <NA>       <NA>     2025-07-01  
#> 4 AF    AFG   Afghanis…  2021    40000412 <NA>  <NA>       <NA>     2025-07-01  
#> 5 AF    AFG   Afghanis…  2020    39068979 <NA>  <NA>       <NA>     2025-07-01  
#> 6 AF    AFG   Afghanis…  2019    37856121 <NA>  <NA>       <NA>     2025-07-01

The current World Bank API does not provide summaries of data availability. I added the wb_country_coverage() function to supply that, which reads pre-computed summaries from GitHub.

d <- wb_country_coverage("gross domestic product", c("Mexico", "Chile"), 2010, 2020)
d

#      iso2c  iso3c country pct_complete  from    to  nobs         indicator
#     <char> <char>  <char>        <num> <int> <int> <int>            <char>
#  1:     CL    CHL   Chile         56.5  1960  2100    52     CC.EG.INTS.KW
#  2:     MX    MEX  Mexico         56.5  1960  2100    52     CC.EG.INTS.KW
#  3:     CL    CHL   Chile         34.8  1960  2025    23 EG.EGY.PRIM.PP.KD
#  4:     MX    MEX  Mexico         34.8  1960  2025    23 EG.EGY.PRIM.PP.KD
#  5:     CL    CHL   Chile         53.0  1960  2025    35 EG.GDP.PUSE.KO.PP
# ---                                                                       
# 82:     MX    MEX  Mexico         54.5  1960  2025    36    PA.NUS.PRVT.PP
# 83:     CL    CHL   Chile         53.0  1960  2025    35 SL.GDP.PCAP.EM.KD
# 84:     MX    MEX  Mexico         53.0  1960  2025    35 SL.GDP.PCAP.EM.KD
# 85:     CL    CHL   Chile        100.0  2004  2023    20   SPI.D5.2.5.HOUS
# 86:     MX    MEX  Mexico         40.0  2004  2023     8   SPI.D5.2.5.HOUS

# countries with less than 15% coverage for any variable
d[pct_complete < 15, ]

#     iso2c  iso3c country pct_complete  from    to  nobs                 indicator
#    <char> <char>  <char>        <num> <int> <int> <int>                    <char>
# 1:     MX    MEX  Mexico         12.9  1960  2100    13 UIS.XUNIT.GDPCAP.02.FSGOV

Hans Rosling’s Gapminder using wbstats

library(wbstats)
library(data.table)
library(tinyplot)

my_indicators <- c(
  life_exp = "SP.DYN.LE00.IN",
  gdp_capita ="NY.GDP.PCAP.CD",
  pop = "SP.POP.TOTL"
)

d <- wb_data(my_indicators, start_date = 2016)

d <- merge(d, wb_countries(), "iso3c")
d <- na.omit(d)

png(file="man/figures/readme-gdppc-vs-lifexp.png", width = 900, height = 600)
tinyplot(
  life_exp ~ gdp_capita | region,
  data = d,
  cex = d$pop,
  pch = 19,
  alpha = 0.7,
  palette = "tableau",
  log = "x",
  xaxl = "$",
  main = "An Example of Hans Rosling's Gapminder using wbstats",
  xlab = "GDP per Capita (log scale)",
  ylab = "Life Expectancy at Birth",
  cap = "Source: World Bank"
)
dev.off()

How I create the package data

What worked for me to query the data was to use the format and per_page arguments. You do not need this to work with the package.

Endpoints used for the package data:

• https://api.worldbank.org/v2/indicators?format=json&per_page=30000
• https://api.worldbank.org/v2/source?format=json&per_page=100
• https://api.worldbank.org/v2/topics?format=json&per_page=100
• https://api.worldbank.org/v2/regions?format=json&per_page=100
• https://api.worldbank.org/v2/incomelevel?format=json&per_page=10
• https://api.worldbank.org/v2/lendingtypes?format=json&per_page=10
• https://api.worldbank.org/v2/languages?format=json&per_page=100

Parts of this API endpoints description comes from https://dlthub.com/context/source/world-bank-indicators-api and other were just testing things like "language" and "languages" tp update wbstats. I did not create this package, I just assumed its maintenance as it is a very valuable resoure.

I added this sub-section because I did not find much information in the official documentation.