Great news for current students, graduating students, alumni, and faculty! The World Bank has recently made their data products freely available without subscription through their new open data site (http://data.worldbank.org), with more than 2,000 financial, business, health, economic, and human development statistics. Most of these products were previously only available through subscription.
What kinds of data can you find here? Over 300 indicators covering over 200 countries – some of the data going back 50 years:
- annual fresh water withdrawals
- electric power consumption
- fertility rates
- GDP
- health expenditures
- internet users
- life expectancy
- literacy rates
- long-term unemployment
- marine protected areas
- methane emissions
- military expenditures
…and much more!
The data come from a variety of sources including international agencies, private and NGO partners, and the World Bank’s 186 member countries. For more information about World Bank’s open data initiative, see this video of World Bank President Robert B. Zoellick.