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An online Atlas of the MDGs is available here
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From the World Bank Group
World
Development Indicators 2012
Public Disclosure Authorized - 68172
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The WDI database,
launched along with the World Bank’s Open Data initiative to provide
free data to all users, includes more than 900 indicators documenting
the state of all the world’s economies. The WDI
covers education, health, poverty, environment, economy, trade, and
much more.
"The WDI
provides a valuable statistical picture of the world and how far we've
come in advancing development," said Justin Yifu Lin,
the World Bank’s Chief Economist and the Senior Vice President for
Development Economics. “Making this comprehensive
data free for all is a dream come true."
Journalists can access the material before the
expiration of the embargo through the World Bank Online Media Briefing
Center at: http://media.worldbank.org/secure
Accredited journalists who do not already have a
password may request one by completing the registration form at: http://media.worldbank.org/
The report and related material will be available to
the public on the World Wide Web immediately after the embargo expires
at: http://www.worldbank.org/data/wdi
World Development
Indicators 2012:
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World Development Indicators 2012 is a
compilation of relevant, high-quality, and internationally comparable
statistics about development and the quality of people’s lives.
Organized around six themes—world view, people, the environment, the
economy, states and markets, and global links—it aims to put data into
the hands of policy makers, development specialists, students, and the
public. We encourage and applaud the use of the data presented here to
help reduce poverty and to solve the world’s most pressing development
challenges.
The full dataset used to produce World Development Indicators
contains more than 1,000 indicators for 216 economies, with many time
series extending back to 1960. Highly visual, interactive, and
multilingual presentations of the data are available at the popular
website http://data.worldbank.org and through the DataFinder
application for mobile devices. And, as a major part of the World
Bank’s Open Data Initiative, the data are freely available for use and
reuse under an open license. A companion printed volume, The Little
Data Book 2012, presents a selection of indicators for each
economy, and the biennial Statistics for Small States
presents data for less-populated developing countries.
This 16th edition of World Development Indicators relies
heavily on statistics produced by national authorities and agencies.
Since the fi rst edition in 1997, there has been a substantial increase
in the availability and quality of the data, thanks to improvements in
statistical capacity in many countries. More remains to be done: the
capacity to use statistical data remains weak; demand is growing for
greater disaggregation of indicators (for instance by sex, age, or
geography); and data in some key areas, such as agriculture, are often
missing or outdated. A new global statistical action plan
(www.paris21.org/busan-action-plan), endorsed in November 2011 at the
highest political levels at the Fourth High Level Forum on Aid
Effectiveness in Busan, Republic of Korea, provides an important
framework to address remaining challenges, to integrate statistics into
decision making, to promote open access to data and improve their use,
and to increase resources for statistical systems.
World Development Indicators is possible only
through the excellent collaboration of many partners who provide the
data for this collection, and I would like to thank them all: the
United Nations family, the International Monetary Fund, the
International Telecommunication Union, the Organisation for Economic
Co-operation and Development, the statistical offices of more than 200
economies, and countless others whose support and advice have made this
unique product possible.
As always, we welcome your ideas for making the data in World
Development Indicators useful and relevant for improving the
lives of people around the world.
Shaida Badiee - Director
Development Economics Data Group
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