WDI Quarterly Update: December 2025

Summary: What’s new in WDI?


The “What’s New” series accompanies the World Development Indicators database updates and provides information about which indicators have been added, updated, or removed in the database and details about these changes to help people make better use of the data.

December 2025 update: On December 16, 2025, the World Development Indicators (WDI) database was updated. This release includes: Universal Healthcare Coverage, the latest International Debt Statistics, and the most recent update of the Statistical Performance Indicators. Updates are also available for purchasing power parity conversion factors for GDP, high-technology exports, as well as for Ethiopia and Venezuela’s national accounts. The latest data for military expenditure and battle-related deaths, water, sanitation, and hygiene indicators, and air traffic time series are also featured.

1. Data updates

On December 16, 2025, the World Development Indicators (WDI) database was updated. This release includes newly available and revised data across key development topics, including:

People

Prosperity

  • International Debt Statistics

    This update includes the latest end-2024 external debt stocks and flows data for select debt indicators from the World Bank’s International Debt Statistics database, such as Debt service (PPG and IMF only, % of exports of goods, services and primary income) (SDG 17.4.1). For analysis of low- and middle-income countries' evolving trends in external debt stocks and flows, refer to the International Debt Report (IDR). Other updated indicators from external sector statistics include foreign direct investment, personal remittances, and portfolio equity.

  • National Accounts (Ethiopia and Venezuela)

    Macroeconomic indicators, including national accounts series such as GDP (current US$), GDP, PPP (current international $). Updated indicators from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) encompass Current account balance (BoP, current US$), Central government debt, total (% of GDP), Tax revenue (% of GDP), Inflation, consumer prices (annual %), and Official exchange rate (LCU per US$, period average). Ranking tables showing 2024 GDP, GDP PPP, GNI, GNI per capita, and Population tables are also available as part of the World Bank's Data Catalog.

    National accounts data for Ethiopia and Venezuela, RB, are now available. In Ethiopia’s case, the publication of national accounts data in U.S. dollars for 2023 and 2024 has been temporarily paused in since July 2025, pending determination of an appropriate exchange rate. For Venezuela, while no official data have been published since 2017/18, technical consultations with the IMF indicate that WEO data provide reliable estimates; these have therefore been incorporated into this WDI update. In 2018 Venezuela, RB, transitioned from the Hard Bolivar (VEF) to the Sovereign Bolivar (VES), at a rate of 1 VES to 100,000 VEF. Again in 2021, Venezuela, RB, transitioned from the Sovereign Bolivar (VES) to the Digital Bolivar (VED), at a rate of 1 VED to 1,000,000 VES. The DEC alternative conversion factor [PA.NUS.ATLS] is adjusted from the VED to account for the use of multiple exchange rates, while the official exchange rate [PA.NUS.FCRF] continues to refer to the VEF. The World Bank income classification remains unchanged during the fiscal year from July 1 to June 30, so both economies will remain unclassified until June 30, 2026.

  • PPP conversion factor

    Purchasing power parity (PPP) conversion factors for gross domestic product (GDP) (PA.NUS.PPP, local currency unit (LCU) per international dollar) is updated using GDP deflator data (NY.GDP.DEFL.ZS.AD) from the World Bank’s economic statistics survey. Purchasing power parity (PPP) conversion factors for private consumption (PA.NUS.PRVT.PP, LCU per international dollar) is updated using Consumer Price Index (CPI) data (FP.CPI.TOTL) sourced from the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) International Financial Statistics (IFS) database. The underlying PPPs are (a) annual PPP estimates published in Eurostat and OECD database for European and OECD countries, and (b) the extrapolated benchmark year PPP estimates produced by International Comparison Program (ICP) for the rest of the World.

  • Military expenditure and battle-related deaths

    The latest data for the military expenditure indicators (local currency, current USD, share of GDP, and share of general government expenditure) sourced from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), as well as the data for battle related deaths indicator provided by the Uppsala Conflict Data Program (UCDP) have been included in the latest release.

Planet

Infrastructure

  • Statistical Performance Indicators

    The Statistical Performance Indicators (SPI) provides a framework to assess national statistical systems across five pillars and 22 dimensions. The latest SPI release updates all underlying data through 2024 for 188 economies and maintains full methodological comparability with previous editions. The data show global progress in statistical performance, and allows data users to compare performance for countries, regions, and income groups. For detailed methodology and insights, please also see the SPI website.

  • Air transport

    The latest data for air traffic indicators sourced from the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), including departures, passengers carried, and freight has been included.

Digital

  • Internet access and subscriptions data from the International Telecommunications Union (ITU)

    The latest regional and income aggregated values for the internet access data (total, male, and female), mobile cellular subscriptions (total and per 100 people), fixed broadband subscriptions (total and per 100 people), and fixed telephone subscriptions (total and per 100 people) have been added.

A complete list of indicators included in this update can be accessed here and the data is available through the Open Data site, DataBank, the Data Catalog, and via API.

2. Methodological updates

Universal Health Coverage (UHC)

UHC Service Coverage Index was revised with updated tracer indicators and a new population-weighted geometric mean, reducing the over-influence of infectious disease treatments such as HIV ART and producing a more balanced measure of service coverage. Financial Hardship due to out-of-pocket (OOP) health spending was broadened beyond catastrophic spending to a poverty-sensitive measure based on households’ discretionary budget, defining hardship as spending >40% of discretionary budget and capturing both large and impoverishing health expenditures. For more details, visit the Inter-Agency and Expert Group on Sustainable Development Goal Indicators (IAEG-SDGs)’s 2025 Comprehensive Review at https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/iaeg-sdgs/2025-comprehensive-review .

4. List of discontinued indicators (including WDI Database Archives)

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