Resource Updates

🔻 World Bank Open Knowledge Repository (OKR)

The World Bank Open Knowledge Repository (OKR) is the World Bank’s official open access repository for its research outputs and knowledge products.

The OKR is built on DSpace, the open source platform heavily used in the open access community, powering over 2,000 open repositories, and is interoperable with other repositories. It supports optimal discoverability and re- usability of the content by complying with Dublin Core Metadata Initiative (DCMI) standards. All OKR metadata is exposed through the Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting (OAI-PMH) and through a REST API.

It contains:

•  Annual Reports and Independent Evaluation Studies from World Bank Group;
•  Books (including flagship publications, academic books and practitioner volumes) published by the World Bank Group;
•  All World Development Reports (WDRs) plus recent WDR background papers;
•  Journal articles published in World Bank Economic Review (WBER) and World Bank Research Observer (WBRO);
•  Accepted manuscripts of Bank-authored journal articles from selected external publishers (after an embargo period if applicable);
•  Metadata and links to Bank-authored external journal articles;
•  Serial publications (typically data-intensive outlook reports);
•  Policy Research Working Papers (PRWP);
•  Selected other papers of high research quality;
•  Economic and Sector Work (ESW) studies—a series of analytical reports prepared by Bank staff;
•  Knowledge Notes, providing short briefs that capture lessons of experience from Bank operations and research;
•  The latest Country Opinion Surveys done in client countries for feedback on World Bank Group activities.
•  Selected translated titles.

🔻 World Bank Open Data 

The new site of World Bank Open Data is designed to make World Bank data easy to find, download, and use. You can use the search box at the top of the homepage to look for indicator names, countries, and topics. You can look at combinations of indicators and countries or multiple countries by adding additional items in the search box. However, you can only display one indicator at a time. 

Data pages allow the option to download all displayed data in bulk.  Look for the “Download” button on any data page; it will either be just to the right or just below the main chart.

You can also Browse by Country:

•  Region
•  Income levels
•  Lending Groups
•  Demographic Dividend Groups
•  Small States
•  Other country groups

Or Browse by Indicator:

More data can be found:

•   DataBank >>

Data displayed on the site of World Bank Open Data are a subset of those available in the World Bank’s DataBank, which contains extensive collections of time series data. The DataBank has advanced functions for selecting and slicing the datasets, performing customized queries and data downloads, and creating charts and other visualizations.

Access data through Web API:

The Data API is a way for web sites and other tools to access data directly. This is the interface of choice for creating custom data visualizations, live combinations with other data sources (mashups), and more. data.worldbank.org is built using data through the Data API. See Developer Section >>

•   Data catalog >>

A comprehensive listing of data and datasets published by the World Bank is available through the Data Catalog. The Catalog contains all the datasets in DataBank, plus many other useful datasets, including some sub-national and raw data from surveys. 

•   Micro data >>

The World Bank’s Microdata Library facilitates access to microdata collected through sample surveys of households, business establishments or other facilities. These microdataprovide information about people living in developing countries, their institutions, their environment, their communities and the operation of their economies. Many of these datasets are available as open data; check the terms of use associated with each dataset.