wbwdi is a Polars-based Python library to access and analyze the World Bank’s World Development Indicators (WDI) using the corresponding API. WDI provides more than 24,000 country or region-level indicators for various contexts. wbwdi enables users to download, process and work with WDI series across multiple entities and time periods.
This library is a product of Christoph Scheuch and not sponsored by or affiliated with the World Bank in any way. For an R implementation, please consider the r-wbwdi package. For packages with a shared design philosophy, check out the econdataverse.
You can install the release version from PyPI:
If you want to use the package with pandas, then install with the corresponding dependencies:
pip install wbwdi[pandas]
You also need to set the configuration to pandas (see below).
You can install the development version from GitHub:
pip install "git+https://github.com/tidy-intelligence/py-wbwdi"
The main function wdi_get() provides an interface to download multiple WDI series for multiple entities and specific date ranges.
import wbwdi as wb wb.wdi_get( entities=["MEX", "CAN", "USA"], indicators=["NY.GDP.PCAP.KD", "SP.POP.TOTL"], start_year=2020, end_year=2024 )
You can also download these indicators for all entities and available dates:
wb.wdi_get( entities="all", indicators=["NY.GDP.PCAP.KD", "SP.POP.TOTL"] )
Some indicators are also available on a monthly basis, e.g.:
wb.wdi_get( entities="AUT", indicators="DPANUSSPB", start_year=2012, end_year=2015, frequency="month" )
Similarly, there are also some indicators available on a quarterly frequency, e.g.:
wb.wdi_get( entities="NGA", indicators= "DT.DOD.DECT.CD.TL.US", start_year=2012, end_year=2015, frequency="quarter" )
You can get a list of all indicators supported by the WDI API via:
You can get a list of all supported entities via:
You can also get the list of supported indicators and entities in another language, but note that not everything seems to be translated into other languages:
wb.wdi_get_indicators(language="es") wb.wdi_get_entities(language="zh")
Check out the following function for a list of supported languages:
In addition, you can list supported regions, sources, topics and lending types, respectively:
wb.wdi_get_regions() wb.wdi_get_sources() wb.wdi_get_topics() wb.wdi_get_lending_types()
If you want to search for specific keywords among indicators or other data sources, you can use the Positron data explorer. Alternatively, this package comes with a helper function:
indicators=wb.wdi_get_indicators() wb.wdi_search( indicators, keywords=["inequality", "gender"], columns=["indicator_name"] )
If you want to data as a pandas or arrow data frame instead of polars, you can change the corresponding configuration:
wb.wdi_set_format("pandas")
wb.wdi_get(
entities=["MEX", "CAN", "USA"],
indicators=["NY.GDP.PCAP.KD", "SP.POP.TOTL"],
start_year=2020,
end_year=2024
) Relation to Existing Python Libraries
There are already great libraries that allow you to interact with the World Bank WDI API. The two main reasons why this library exists are: (i) to have an implementation based on Polars rather than pandas, and (ii) to have an interface consistent with the econdataverse.
RetroSearch is an open source project built by @garambo | Open a GitHub Issue
Search and Browse the WWW like it's 1997 | Search results from DuckDuckGo
HTML:
3.2
| Encoding:
UTF-8
| Version:
0.7.4