| Votes | By | Price | Discipline | Year Launched |
| DataBank | OPEN SOURCE | Interdisciplinary |
The World Bank DataBank is an online analysis and visualization platform offered by the World Bank that hosts vast collections of time-series data across a wide range of topics such as economy, health, education, environment, gender, poverty and more. Users can generate customized tables, charts or maps, query by indicator, country or region, and download or embed the results.
Who it serves and how
This tool is valuable to researchers, policy-analysts, data-journalists and educators who need access to globally comparable statistical datasets and the ability to visualise trends over time. Through DataBank, users can select specific indicators (for example, “Population, total”, “GDP per capita”, “Mortality rate under 5”) and examine how they evolve across countries or regions.
The platform’s filtering, charting and download options make it a practical resource for preparing figures, performing cross-country comparisons and embedding data into reports or presentations.
Key features & value
- Comprehensive topic coverage: DataBank aggregates datasets on agriculture, education, gender, health, infrastructure, finance, urban development and many other domains.
- Visualisation tools: Users can create charts and maps directly in the browser, customise them and save or share results.
- Downloadable formats: Data can be exported in several formats (e.g., CSV, Excel), enabling further offline analysis.
- Free access: The platform is freely accessible to users, requiring no subscription for public data.
Considerations
While the DataBank provides excellent breadth and usability, users should keep in mind:
- The tool provides aggregated or macro-level data, for very detailed or raw micro-level datasets (survey-level or instrument data) additional sources may be needed.
- Understanding metadata—such as definitions of indicators, comparability between years or countries—is important to ensure correct interpretation of results.
- Although visualisations are built-in, further statistical or modelling work may require exporting the data to specialised software.