---
id: wbdata
version: "1.1.0"
license: GPL-2.0+
license_treatment: copyleft
maintenance: active
---

# wbdata — A library to access World Bank data

License: copyleft · Maintenance: active · Downloads: 4.8M/mo

## What it is and what it does

Wbdata is a Python wrapper around the World Bank's public data APIs, designed to simplify querying economic and development indicators without direct HTTP calls. It abstracts the World Bank's REST endpoints and returns results in multiple formats—raw dictionaries for full metadata, or pandas DataFrames and series for analysis-ready data. The package includes convenience functions for searching indicators and countries, plus caching and retry logic via its dependencies (backoff, cachetools, shelved-cache).

Typical use is exploratory data retrieval: fetch GDP, inflation, population, or other World Bank indicators for one or more countries and time periods, then work with the result in pandas or export it. The package targets researchers, economists, and data analysts who need World Bank data without building API clients from scratch. It has been in active development since 2012 and is marked production-stable.

Use it for:

- Retrieve World Bank economic indicators (GDP, inflation, employment) for a country or region into a pandas DataFrame for analysis.
- Search World Bank indicator metadata to find the correct indicator codes before querying data.
- Fetch time-series development data for multiple countries to compare trends or build datasets for econometric modeling.
- Automate periodic data pulls from World Bank APIs for dashboards or reports without writing HTTP logic.
- Export World Bank indicators to CSV or other formats via pandas after retrieval.

## Worth the install?

AI-flagged interpretation of the facts above — verify before relying.

Wbdata provides a Python interface to query and retrieve data from the World Bank's public databases, returning results as dictionaries, pandas DataFrames, or series.

Yes, if you need World Bank data in Python. Install friction is low, maintenance is active, and the package is stable. The GPL-2.0+ copyleft license is the main constraint—acceptable for open-source or research work, but review if your project is proprietary or uses a different license. No known vulnerabilities.

## Install

pip install wbdata
uv add wbdata
poetry add wbdata

## Installing wbdata

Before you install: Low friction install with eight common dependencies (requests, pandas-adjacent tools, caching utilities). Actively maintained as of July 2026 with stable production status.

License in practice: GPL-2.0+ copyleft license requires derivative works and distributions to be licensed under GPL-2.0 or later; review if integrating into proprietary or differently-licensed projects.

Quickstart:

pip install wbdata
import wbdata
data = wbdata.get_dataframe({"NY.GDP.MKTP.CD": None}, convert_date=False)

Requires Python 3.10 or later; World Bank API endpoint availability.

Verify before relying:

- Whether the package handles World Bank API rate limits or authentication transparently.
- Current coverage of World Bank API endpoints relative to the full API surface.
- Performance characteristics when retrieving large datasets or many indicators.

## Package facts

- License: GPL-2.0+ (copyleft)
- Python support: supports_current
- Install friction: low
- Maintenance: active
- Downloads: 4.8M/month (top 5,000 on PyPI)
- Known vulnerabilities: none known

## Tags

world bank data api python, access world bank datasets, world bank economic data, retrieve world bank indicators, world bank api wrapper, economic data from world bank, world bank development indicators, world-bank-api, economic-data, data-retrieval

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