1. Data updates
On October 7, 2025, the World Development Indicators (WDI) database was updated. This release includes newly available and revised data across key development topics, including:
People
- ▪ Key education indicators sourced from the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS), including enrollment, completion, attainment, literacy rate, out-of-school children, teachers, and education expenditure.
- ▪ Health data on HIV/AIDS, following the annual UNAIDS release. This data covers HIV prevalence and incidence (by sex and age groups) as well as indicators related to treatment such as antiretroviral therapy coverage. Additionally, data on immunization have been updated based on the latest WHO/UNICEF database, along with the national estimate of the maternal mortality ratio.
- ▪ Labor statistics, including national estimates of the labor force, unemployment, and employment (by sex and age groups), sourced from the ILOSTAT database as well as aggregates of social protection, such as coverage of social protection and labor programs, from the Atlas of Social Protection Indicators of Resilience and Equity (ASPIRE).
- ▪ Data on forcibly displaced people, including indicators on refugees under the mandate of the UNHCR (by country or territory of asylum and origin), and UNRWA (by country or territory of asylum and origin), asylum-seekers (by country or territory of asylum and origin), internally displaced people (IDP), and other people in need of international protection (by country or territory of asylum and origin), covering data until 2024.
- ▪ International migrant stock indicators, sourced from the United Nations Population Division International Migrant Stock data.
- ▪ Intentional homicide indicators (total, male, and female) sourced from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, have been updated.
Prosperity
- ▪ New country level poverty data, as well as global and regional poverty estimates, up to 2024, based on the World Bank's Poverty and Inequality Platform, featuring three major changes: 55 new datasets, including 2022 data for Nigeria which enhanced coverage in Sub-Saharan Africa; a new methodology for estimating poverty in countries without data and minor adjustments to data interpolation methods; and a reclassification of the data to align with the World Bank’s new regional classification effective July 2025. For more information, check this blog: September 2025 global poverty update from the World Bank: New data and regional classifications.
- ▪ Balance of payments indicators, sourced from IMF’s Balance of Payment database, and gap-filled with UNCTAD (FDI data) and World Bank Remittances data have been updated. The trade price indices, the export and import unit value indices (2015=100) from UNCTAD, have been also updated.
- ▪ PPP conversion factor for private consumption (LCU per international $), based on the updated Consumer Price Index data sourced from IMF’s International Financial Statistics database.
Planet
- ▪ Emissions data for the LULUCF sector from European Forest Observatory, including derived indicators, such as Total Greenhouse Gas Emissions including LULUCF.
- ▪ Data on land area and land use (e.g., agricultural land), fertilizer consumption, production indices (crop, food and livestock) from FAOSTAT and derived indicators, like population density. Indicators on freshwater withdrawals and water stress from FAO’s Aquastat database.
- ▪ Prevalence of food insecurity in the population, including FAO's moderate or severe and severe levels of food insecurity, which are based on the Food Insecurity Experience Scale (FIES).
Infrastructure
- ▪ Energy and electricity production indicators based on data from the IEA such as Electric power consumption (kWh per capita) and Energy use (kg of oil equivalent per capita) as well as Renewable electricity output (% of total electricity output) and Energy imports, net (% of energy use).
Digital
- ▪ The latest data on access and use of financial services around the world, including account ownership at a financial institution or with a mobile-money-service, disaggregated by gender, income groups, age groups, or education level, sourced from the Global Findex Database (2025).
Change in base year for ODA indicators
The OECD’s ODA indicators have been rebased from 2021 to 2023 constant U.S. dollars to better reflect recent price structures. The underlying ODA definition and deflator methodology remain unchanged. For more information, see the DAC deflator section: https://www.oecd.org/content/oecd/en/data/insights/data-explainers/2024/10/resources-for-reporting-development-finance-statistics.html
Country name change
The official country name for Somalia has been updated to ‘Somalia, Fed. Rep.’ in the WDI database.
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.