World Bank Data Scraper

World Bank Data Scraper

Scrape World Bank economic indicators for any country and indicator code, up to a million rows per run. Each row returns the country, indicator, year, and value in one flat schema. No API key or registration. Export to CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML.

The World Bank's official API needs a developer account, API key, and pagination handling. This reads the public data catalog directly, filtered by country codes and indicator code, and returns each observation as one flat row. It covers GDP, population, inflation, and thousands of other indicators.

Who uses it	What they scrape World Bank for
Economists	Comparing GDP growth across countries over decades
Data analysts	Building time-series datasets for forecasting models
Students and researchers	Gathering historical development data for papers
Financial journalists	Fact-checking economic statistics for articles

What it does

This Actor collects World Bank economic indicator observations by country codes and indicator code, and returns each observation as a flat row with country, indicator, year, and value.

• 🌍 Country codes: ISO 2-letter codes like US, CN, GB, DE, JP, IN, BR, FR.
• 📊 Indicator code: World Bank codes like NY.GDP.MKTP.CD for GDP, SP.POP.TOTL for population, FP.CPI.TOTL.ZG for inflation.
• 🔢 Max items: Free users get 10 rows for preview; paid users can fetch up to 1,000,000 rows.
• 📁 Flat output: Each observation is one row with country, indicator, year, and value.
• 💾 Export formats: CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML.

Results export to CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML, or straight from the API.

What you can do with World Bank data

📈 Track GDP growth.

An economist runs the Actor with country codes US, CN, IN and indicator NY.GDP.MKTP.CD to compare GDP trends over the last 20 years.

👥 Monitor population changes.

A data analyst fetches SP.POP.TOTL for all EU countries to build a demographic dashboard.

💰 Analyze inflation rates.

A financial journalist pulls FP.CPI.TOTL.ZG for emerging markets to report on price stability.

🎓 Gather data for research.

A student collects multiple indicators for a thesis on economic development in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Why choose this scraper

	What you get
No API key	Reads the public data catalog directly, no registration or OAuth.
One flat schema	Every observation is a single row, ready for analysis.
Any indicator	Thousands of World Bank indicators by code.
Scalable	From 10 preview rows to 1,000,000 rows per run.

How it compares

No other Store actor targets World Bank the same way, so the honest comparison is with the alternatives teams actually weigh.

	World Bank Data Scraper	Build it in-house	By hand
Setup	Run it now, zero config	Days of engineering	None, but hours per pull
When World Bank changes	Maintained for you	You fix it	You re-learn the page
Proxies, retries, anti-bot	Built in	Your problem	Browser only
Output	Fixed JSON schema, CSV/Excel export	Whatever you build	Copy-paste
Cost	Pay per result	Engineering time	Analyst hours

Configure the run

Drive the Actor with country codes and an indicator code, and set max items to limit the number of observations returned. The Input tab lists every parameter.

A first run with the defaults:

{
  "countryCodes": [
    "US",
    "CN",
    "GB",
    "DE",
    "JP"
  ],
  "indicatorCode": "NY.GDP.MKTP.CD",
  "maxItems": 10
}

A larger pull:

{
  "countryCodes": [
    "US",
    "CN",
    "GB",
    "DE",
    "JP"
  ],
  "indicatorCode": "NY.GDP.MKTP.CD",
  "maxItems": 200
}

Pricing

Pay-per-result: $0.0055 per result collected. You pay only for the results written to your dataset.

Results collected	Approximate cost
100 results	$0.55
1,000 results	$5.50
10,000 results	$55.00

New Apify accounts start with $5 in free credit.

Free users

Free-plan runs return up to 10 results as a preview. Upgrade your Apify plan to collect up to 1,000,000 results per run.

Run it

1. Create a free Apify account with $5 in credit.
2. Open the World Bank Data Scraper.
3. Set your inputs and any filters, then click Start.
4. Export the results as CSV, Excel, JSON, or XML from the Dataset tab.

Run it programmatically through the Apify API (run-sync-get-dataset-items) or the ApifyClient for JavaScript and Python.

Use with AI agents (MCP)

Give an AI agent live access to World Bank through the Model Context Protocol. Add the Actor to Claude, Cursor, or any MCP client:

claude mcp add --transport http apify "https://mcp.apify.com?tools=parseforge/world-bank-scraper"

Then prompt it in plain language to run the scraper and read back the results.

Troubleshooting

Why am I getting no results?

Check that the indicator code is valid and that the country codes are correct ISO 2-letter codes. Also ensure maxItems is at least 1.

Why am I only getting 10 rows?

Free users are limited to 10 rows for preview. Upgrade to a paid plan to increase maxItems up to 1,000,000.

The run failed with an error.

Verify the input format. Country codes must be a list of strings, and indicatorCode must be a string. Check the World Bank Data Catalog for valid codes.

Can I get data for all countries?

Yes, you can provide a list of all ISO 2-letter country codes. There is no limit on the number of countries, but maxItems limits total rows.

The data seems outdated.

The Actor fetches the latest data from the World Bank's public catalog. If you need a specific update, check the catalog for the latest release.

FAQ

Question	Answer
What is a World Bank indicator code?	It is a unique identifier for a data series, like NY.GDP.MKTP.CD for GDP in current US dollars. You can find codes in the World Bank Data Catalog.
How do I find country codes?	Use ISO 2-letter codes, for example US for United States, CN for China, GB for United Kingdom. The Actor accepts a list of these codes.
Can I get data for multiple countries at once?	Yes, provide a list of country codes in the input. The Actor fetches data for all of them in one run.
What is the maximum number of rows I can get?	Free users are limited to 10 rows for preview. Paid users can set maxItems up to 1,000,000 rows.
Do I need a World Bank API key?	No, this Actor reads the public data catalog directly, so no API key or registration is required.
What export formats are supported?	You can export the results as CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML.
Can I get historical data?	Yes, the Actor returns observations for all available years for the selected indicator and countries.
What if I enter an invalid indicator code?	The Actor will return no results or an error. Check the code against the World Bank Data Catalog.
Is the data updated?	The Actor fetches the latest data available from the World Bank's public catalog at the time of the run.
Can I schedule this Actor to run regularly?	Yes, you can set up a schedule on Apify to run it daily, weekly, or at any interval.

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Browse the full ParseForge collection for more scrapers.

🆘 Need help? Email parseforge@protonmail.com with your run ID, your input, and what you expected.

⚠️ Disclaimer. This Actor is unofficial and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by The World Bank Group. It collects only publicly available data. You are responsible for using the collected data in compliance with the source's terms of service and applicable data-protection laws, including GDPR, CCPA, and PIPL. Do not use it to collect personal data unlawfully.