How do I cite World Bank data?

The World Bank publishes most of its open datasets, including World Development Indicators (WDI), under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (CC BY 4.0), with a few additional terms. You can copy, adapt and use the data commercially, as long as you credit it properly.

What the terms require

According to the World Bank's dataset terms of use:

• The CC BY 4.0 license is the default, unless the data or indicator metadata says otherwise.
• You must give attribution to the World Bank and its data providers in the manner indicated in the metadata included with the data.
• When you share the data, the same acknowledgment requirement has to pass on to anyone you share it with. Providing the URL of the terms of use is enough to meet that requirement.
• You must not claim or imply that the World Bank endorses your use of the data.
• CC BY 4.0 itself also requires you to indicate if you changed the material.
• Some indicators come from third parties and may have different conditions. These are noted in the indicator's metadata.

The World Bank's attribution format

The terms give this general format:

The World Bank: Dataset name: Data source (if known)

For an indicator in WDI, the data source is the organization named in the indicator's metadata. For example, annual freshwater withdrawals in WDI come from FAO's AQUASTAT, so the credit reads:

The World Bank: World Development Indicators: AQUASTAT - FAO's Global Information System on Water and Agriculture

GDP (current US$) is credited the same way, with its own source from the metadata: national statistical organizations and central banks, OECD national accounts data and World Bank staff estimates.

A fuller citation for reports and papers

The format above is the minimum. For a report, article or thesis, add what a reader needs to find and check the numbers: the indicator name and code, the version or update date, the date you retrieved it, and the URL. Here is one pattern:

World Bank, World Development Indicators, "GDP (current US$)" (NY.GDP.MKTP.CD), database last updated [date], retrieved [date] from [URL]. Licensed CC BY 4.0.

If you follow a style guide such as APA, use its dataset pattern and fill it in the same way: author (World Bank), year, title (World Development Indicators), the label [Data set], publisher and URL. The World Bank's terms fix the attribution format above, but a journal or institution may require its own citation style. In that case follow theirs, keep the elements listed here, and check the dataset's page in the World Bank Data Catalog for any citation text it offers.

Credit and changes in a spreadsheet or chart

• Put a source line under each table or chart: Source: World Bank, World Development Indicators (NY.GDP.MKTP.CD), retrieved 2026-10-08.
• If you calculated anything from the data, such as shares, growth rates or unit conversions, say so: Calculations by the author based on World Bank data. That tells readers what changed and avoids implying the World Bank produced your figures.
• Keep the source note inside the workbook, on a Notes or About tab, so it travels with the file when it is copied.

Datasets from Sheet Reserve

The GDP by country and freshwater withdrawals by country workbooks come from the World Bank, and the GDP workbook includes a ready-to-use credit line on its About tab. Sheet Reserve's license covers its compilation, formatting, formulas and documentation. The underlying figures stay under their original license, so the attribution requirement applies to you when you publish them. The blog post on reliable public datasets for spreadsheets discusses what to check about a dataset's source and terms before you use it.