About the API

The World Bank currently has three different APIs to provide access to different datasets: one for Indicators (or time series data), one for Projects (or data on the World Bank’s operations), and one for the World Bank financial data (World Bank Finances API). All three APIs implement RESTful interfaces to allow users to perform queries of available data using selection parameters. For the Indicators API, XML and JSON representations are available; for the Projects API, Atom representation is also available; for the World Bank Finances API, XML, JSON and RDF representations are available.

The API Overview page describes how to query the Indicators API, demonstrate specific queries and show expected results, and give several examples. Explore the Projects API page allows users to pick different options to see the corresponding API request and response format. Details on the API used for World Bank Finances can be found on the Open Data API site.

About the Data

The World Bank Indicators API lets you programmatically access more than 8,000 indicators and query the data in several ways, using parameters to specify your request. Many data series date back 50 years, and can be used to create interesting applications. You can read more about the data itself in the API Sources section. The projects API provides access to all World Bank projects, including closed projects, active projects, and those in the pipeline. The dataset includes pilot geocode data on project locations; note that these data are collected through a desk study of existing project documents and are being released as a test database -- further work is required for data validation and quality enhancements. Information on the content of the dataset is available at Project Documentation section. The World Bank Finances API provides access to the data on the World Bank’s loans, credits, financial statements and other data related to the financial operations. Check the World Bank Finances page for the current list of the financial datasets.

Explore the API

API queries can be constructed using interactive API query builders Indicator Query builder and Projects Query Builder.

Applications

You are encouraged to develop software applications that utilize and add value to World Bank datasets. The data.worldbank.org website is developed using the World Bank API using the open source Drupal Content Management System. A Drupal module, wbapi, is also available, which can be used by Drupal developers to easily develop websites that query and display data from the API; or incorporate World Bank data in existing Drupal sites.

Learn about what others are doing with the World Bank datasets and the APIs in the Application Showcase.

Terms and conditions

The use of World Bank datasets listed in the Data Catalog is governed by a specific Terms of Use for World Bank Data. The use of the APIs is governed by the Terms and Conditions.