Your own little slice of World Bank Open Data

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A number of World Bank Open Data users have been taking advantage of the new Databank. Databank offers over 8,000 indicators with which to create and save custom reports with tables, charts, or maps. The saved reports are updated automatically when the data are udpated. And you can revisit, share, and embed the tables, charts, or maps as widgets on websites or blogs. All of the reports that people have created for public sharing can be seen on the lower right portion of the screen on the new Databank site.

 

There are nearly 200 such reports that have been shared publicly. Here is an example of one showing financial flows to developing countries over the past few years.

Recently, I used these Databank tools to make a few charts which I embedded into a news story on the new World Development Indicators. I encourage everyone to try it out. And let us know what you think of the new features and any suggestions you have for us. What will you create with Databank? 

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Soong Sup Lee
May 07, 2012

Thanks Aaron. Feedback and suggestions like yours are really valuable to us as we continue to improve the functionality and interface of our data tools. To answer your question, yes you can see more than one country at a time for an indicator. Here is how:

1. log into Databank (http://databank.worldbank.org/data/home.aspx)
2. click on Saved Reports from the upper left navigation bar
3. choose the graph you want to edit
4. click on the chart options button (it has a gear icon)
5. in the Orientation section, click custom
6. choose the following values: Country (x-axis), Series (page), Time (y-axis)
7. click the "Apply changes" button
8. if that worked, remeber to save the report (it has a diskette icon)

Remember, you can always contact us for help by email at data@worldbank.org or by phone at 800-590-1906.

Cheers,
Sup

Aaron
May 06, 2012

Hi Soong,

I played with the databank to create a graph showing Workers remittances and compensation of employees, paid (current US$). I couldn't figure out how to show a graph that compares countries across that variable. I was only able to see one country at a time. Am I missing something or does the databank not have this functionality yet? If it does have the functionality, it may not be intuitive as it should be. My 2 cents.

Thanks.

Bonnie Palifka
May 18, 2012

I am using the Corruption Control variable from the WGI dataset and discovered two shortcomings in the WDR 2011 dataset. First, this variable is updated only to 2008. Due to this problem, I was complementing the easy-to-copy-and-paste WDR with the 2009 and 2010 figures directly from WGI, when I discovered that the earlier figures were different from those in the WDR 2011 dataset.

Soong Sup Lee
May 21, 2012

Hi Bonnie,

Thanks for your comment. The data presented in the WDR 2011 dataset has not been updated since the launch and so the available data are for 2008/2009. For the Corruption Control indicator, we suggest you use the original source WGI (http://info.worldbank.org/governance/wgi/index.asp) as they update their database frequently and adjust the historical series. Sorry for any inconvenience.

Mike
February 13, 2018

Thanks for the post