February Resource of the Month: World Development Indicators

Our February “Resource of the month” is the World Bank’s World Development Indicators, a compilation of data from officially-recognised sources that presents researchers with up-to-date and accurate information on global health and development. Including statistics produced by more than 150 nations, the WDI has published new material every year since 1960. Much of this data comes from the official statistics of its member countries (1).

WDI statistics can be browsed by country, topic and indicator, and the information in the World Bank database comes accompanied by notes that help to contextualise the numbers in terms of development (2).

Access to the WDI is provided through the UK-based Economic and Social Data Service (ESDS), a national service that came into operation in 2003. Access to ESDS can be found in the library’s electronic resources section (data, statistics and bibliometrics).

• WDI (ESDS International) 
• WDI (World Bank website) 

For further information on WDI and ESDS, please visit:

• World Bank, Data Overview. 
• World Bank, World Development Indicators Data. 
• ESDS International, About ESDS.