1. Data updates
On July 1, 2026, the World Development Indicators (WDI) database was updated. This release brings refreshed global data across poverty, population, health, gender, migration, governance, and the economy—featuring improved methodologies and new indicators to better understand development trends worldwide.
People
- ▪ Poverty estimates have been updated through 2024, covering international poverty headcount ratios (SI.POV.DDAY) and poverty gaps (SI.POV.GAPS) for the new income groups: UMC, LMC, and LIC.
- ▪ Population indicators (SP.POP.TOTL) have been updated with the latest estimates through 2025, offering detailed insights by age, sex (female: SP.POP.TOTL.FE.IN; male: SP.POP.TOTL.MA.IN), and urban–rural location (urban: SP.URB.TOTL; rural: SP.RUR.TOTL). These updates support a deeper understanding of demographic change, including growth patterns (SP.POP.GROW) and dependency trends (SP.POP.DPND).
- ▪ Updated 2024 data on tobacco use prevalence—for all adults (SH.PRV.SMOK) and by sex (female: SH.PRV.SMOK.FE; male: SH.PRV.SMOK.MA)—offer the latest evidence on a major global health risk and support public health monitoring and policy efforts.
- ▪ Indicators on forced displaced people (SM.POP.FDIP) have been updated with the latest data on refugees, asylum-seekers, internally displaced persons, and others in need of protection, reported by country of asylum and origin. These updates provide a comprehensive view of global displacement trends. See the full picture of indicators at https://blogs.worldbank.org/en/opendata/empowering-development-through-data-on-forced-displacement (Figure 3).
- ▪ New data on unpaid domestic and care work by sex (female: SG.TIM.UWRK.FE; male: SG.TIM.UWRK.MA), women’s decision-making in reproductive health (SG.DMK.SRCR.FN.ZS), and demand for family planning satisfied by modern methods (SH.FPL.SATM.ZS) provide deeper insight into gender roles, economic participation, agency, and access to reproductive health services, while supporting monitoring of progress toward the SDGs.
Prosperity
- ▪ A comprehensive refresh of national accounts statistics covers GDP and its components across current (NY.GDP.MKTP.CD) and constant prices (NY.GDP.MKTP.KD), expenditure-side aggregates (consumption, investment , and trade), sectoral value added, and key income measures such as GNI and savings. Updates through 2025 also extend to deflator series and linked constant-price estimates, ensuring greater consistency over time and enhanced comparability between real and nominal measures.
- ▪ Financial and macroeconomic indicators have been refreshed with the latest IMF Financial Soundness Indicators (FSI) and Financial Access Survey (FAS) data, strengthening coverage of credit conditions, financial inclusion, and financial system stability. Updated indicators include bank capital to assets ratio (FB.BNK.CAPA.ZS) as well as commercial bank branches (FB.CBK.BRCH.P5), borrowers from commercial banks (FB.CBK.BRWR.P3), depositors with commercial banks (FB.CBK.DPTR.P3). Indicators from the IMF Balance of payments (BOP), Government Finance Statistics (GFS), and Monetary and Financial Statistics (MFS) databases have also been updated.
- ▪ Updated indicators on foreign investment (net inflows: BX.KLT.DINV.CD.WD; net outflows: BM.KLT.DINV.CD.WD), remittances (paid: BM.TRF.PWKR.CD.DT; received: BX.TRF.PWKR.CD.DT), and firm performance regulations—including time required to obtain an operating license (IC.FRM.DURS) and firms experiencing electrical outages (IC.ELC.OUTG.ZS)— now reflect the latest Balance of Payments statistics and enterprise survey data, providing a clearer view of business conditions and cross-border flows.
- ▪ 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. Data for the most recent year, 2025, have been incorporated. 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.
- ▪ The latest Country Policy and Institutional Assessment (CPIA) indicators, including the IDA Resource Allocation Index (IQ.CPA.IRAI.XQ), provide updated insight into countries’ policy and institutional performance in economic management (IQ.CPA.ECON.XQ), structural policies (IQ.CPA.STRC.XQ), public sector management (IQ.CPA.PUBS.XQ), and social inclusion (IQ.CPA.SOCI.XQ). These ratings assess how effectively countries manage resources, support growth, and advance sustainable development. See more details at https://ida.worldbank.org/en/financing/resource-management/ida-resource-allocation-index
- ▪ Entrepreneurship indicators provide updated insight into business creation and activity worldwide, including business density (IC.BUS.NDNS.ZS) and newly registered firms (IC.BUS.NREG). These measures help track private sector dynamism and economic opportunity. Additional context is available in the Entrepreneurship Database, Prosperity Notes Series, World Bank Group. http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/099042726200012030
Planet
- ▪ Environmental indicators—including fisheries production (ER.FSH.PROD.MT)—have been refreshed using the latest FAO data, supporting analyses of resource use and sustainability
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.