Tools

9 tools for browsing and querying the World Bank Open Data API:

worldbank_list_topics

List all 21 World Bank thematic topic categories.

• No input required — returns the complete fixed taxonomy
• Topics include Agriculture, Economy & Growth, Education, Energy & Mining, Environment, Financial Sector, Health, Infrastructure, Poverty, Private Sector, Public Sector, Science & Technology, Social Development, Social Protection & Labor, Trade, Urban Development, and more
• Returns topic IDs used to filter worldbank_search_indicators

worldbank_list_sources

List the 70+ World Bank data sources (datasets).

• Paginated with configurable page size (up to 100 per page)
• Each source includes ID, name, short code, last-updated date, and data/metadata availability status
• Source IDs used to filter worldbank_search_indicators by dataset origin (e.g. "2" for World Development Indicators, "6" for IDS)

worldbank_list_countries

List countries and regional aggregates with metadata.

• Returns ISO codes, World Bank region, income level, capital city, and coordinates
• Filterable by region code (EAS, ECS, LCN, MEA, NAC, SAS, SSF) and income level (LIC, LMC, UMC, HIC)
• By default returns individual countries only; set include_aggregates=true to include regional, income-group, and world aggregate entities
• Paginated with up to 300 entries per page

worldbank_get_country

Fetch full metadata for a single country or aggregate entity.

• Accepts ISO2 (US), ISO3 (USA), or World Bank aggregate codes (EAS, HIC, WLD)
• Returns region, income level, lending type, capital city, and coordinates
• Structured error with recovery hint when code is not found

worldbank_search_indicators

Search the 29,500+ World Bank indicator catalog.

• Keyword search, topic filter, source filter — at least one required
• The upstream searchterm parameter does not filter, so keyword matching runs locally over the full catalog (or the full selected topic/source): every term must appear in the indicator ID, name, or description, in any word order, with punctuation ignored
• Exact ID or name matches rank first, then whole-phrase matches, then other ID/name matches, then description-only matches — so pasting an indicator name (GDP (current US$)) or ID (NY.GDP.MKTP.CD) returns it as the top hit
• Returns indicator IDs, names, source dataset, and thematic topics
• One row per indicator ID — the 43 indicators published under both a live source and an archived copy collapse to the live row, and worldbank_get_indicator resolves to the same one
• Indicator IDs (e.g. NY.GDP.PCAP.CD, SP.POP.TOTL) feed directly into worldbank_get_data
• Echoes the filters it applied (query, topic_id, source_id) alongside the results
• Paginated with up to 100 results per page

worldbank_get_indicator

Fetch complete metadata for a known indicator ID.

• Returns full description, unit of measurement, source dataset, source organization, and thematic topics
• Structured error with recovery hint when ID is not found

worldbank_get_data

Query indicator values for countries across time. The primary data-access tool.

• Single country, array of countries, regional codes (EAS, LCN, …), income codes (HIC, LMC, …), world code (WLD), or "all" for every entry. At least one code is required — an empty value is rejected rather than read as "all"
• Time filtering: date_range for a period or range — annual (2020, 2010:2023), quarterly (2020Q1:2021Q4), or monthly (2020M01:2020M06) — or mrv for the N most recent available values (1–100). Mutually exclusive.
• A date_range the API can't apply is enforced locally over the whole series, so observations outside the requested window are never returned as matches
• Returns observations with null values when data is not available for a country×year cell — common for sparse series
• Includes nullCount per page to surface data sparsity
• Output grouped by country for readability; isAggregate flag distinguishes all 78 regional, income-group, and lending-group aggregates from individual countries
• Echoes the parameters it sent upstream — indicator, normalized country codes, date range or mrv, page and page size
• Paginated with up to 1000 entries per page

worldbank_get_poverty

Poverty and inequality estimates from the World Bank Poverty and Inequality Platform (PIP) — a separate dataset from the WDI series the other tools read.