World Bank

Overview

The World Bank API serves the bank’s development data — country indicators, economic statistics, GDP, population, and 1,000+ time-series datasets — as JSON/XML. Keyless and free (verified live), it’s the standard source for economic and development data.

Quick Start

Country info (verified live — China):

curl "https://api.worldbank.org/v2/country/CN?format=json"

[
  { "page": 1, "pages": 1, "per_page": "50", "total": 1 },
  [
    {
      "id": "CHN",
      "iso2Code": "CN",
      "name": "China",
      "region": { "id": "EAS", "value": "East Asia & Pacific" },
      "incomeLevel": { "id": "UMC", "value": "Upper middle income" },
      "capitalCity": "Beijing"
    }
  ]
]

GDP time series:

curl "https://api.worldbank.org/v2/country/CN/indicator/NY.GDP.MKTP.CD?format=json&date=2015:2024"

All indicators for a country:

curl "https://api.worldbank.org/v2/country/US/indicator/SP.POP.TOTL?format=json"

Authentication

None — keyless.

Rate Limits & Notes

• Free, public data — no key, generous limits.
• Responses are arrays: [metadata, [results]] — the first element is pagination metadata.
• Indicators use World Bank codes (NY.GDP.MKTP.CD = GDP current US$, SP.POP.TOTL = population).
• format=json (also xml, csv); date=2015:2024 filters years; per_page up to 100.
• ~1,000 indicators across 200+ countries — great for dashboards and research.

FAQ

Is World Bank API free? Yes — free, keyless, public development data.

How do I get GDP history? /v2/country/{code}/indicator/NY.GDP.MKTP.CD?format=json&date=2015:2024.

What’s the response structure? A two-element array: pagination metadata + results.