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Macroeconomic & Country-Level Data

  • World Bank Open Data API Python Global — Development indicators for 200+ countries covering GDP, poverty, health, education, governance, environment, and more. Includes the World Development Indicators (WDI), Worldwide Governance Indicators (WGI), and Doing Business data. API with Python access via wbgapi.
  • World Bank Databank API CSV Global — Query interface for 300+ World Bank databases beyond the standard development indicators, including the Global Financial Development Database (GFDD), International Debt Statistics, Quarterly External Debt Statistics, Global Economic Monitor, and more. Results exportable as Excel/CSV; API access available. Complements World Bank Open Data above.
  • Penn World Table CSV Global — Cross-country data on GDP, capital stocks, productivity, and price levels for 183 countries since 1950 (version 10.01, latest year 2019). Standard dataset for cross-country growth and development research. By the University of Groningen Growth and Development Centre. Download as Excel/Stata.
  • NBER Business Cycle Dates US — Official U.S. expansion and contraction dates maintained by the NBER Business Cycle Dating Committee. The standard reference for identifying recessions and expansions in the U.S. economy. Updated as determined by the committee.
  • CEPII Country Distance Data CSV Global — Measures of geographic distances and trade costs between countries, including bilateral distances, historical ties, and geographical characteristics. Standard dataset for gravity models in trade and international finance research.
  • EM-DAT (International Disaster Database) Global — Data on 26,000+ mass disasters worldwide from 1900 to present, including disaster types, dates, locations, and human and economic impacts. Maintained by the Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED).
  • Global Capital Allocation Project CSV Global — Datasets on international capital allocation by country, currency, and asset class. Includes security-level U.S. fund holdings from SEC N-PORT filings, restatements of TIC and CPIS data, and interactive visualizations. By Maggiori, Neiman, Schreger, and others. Data and code on GitHub.
  • Global Macro Database CSV Global — Open-source dataset of macroeconomic statistics unifying 32 major contemporary sources (IMF, World Bank, OECD) with 78 historical datasets. Annual time series for 46 variables across 243 countries.
  • Heritage Foundation Index of Economic Freedom Global — Annual country scores on property rights, regulatory efficiency, trade freedom, and fiscal policy. Useful for studying investment climates and cross-country institutional differences.
  • LobbyView CSV US — Firm-level data on U.S. lobbying activities and associated congressional bills, including lobbying expenditures and targeted legislation.
  • MacroFinance & MacroHistory Lab CSV Global — Historical macroeconomic and financial data (Jordà-Schularick-Taylor) covering long-term trends in GDP, housing prices, interest rates, and financial crises across 17 advanced economies since 1870.
  • Our World in Data CSV Global — Free, open-source research and data on global issues including CO₂ emissions, energy, poverty, health, education, and more. All data downloadable as CSV with full GitHub repositories. Particularly strong on long-run time series and cross-country comparisons.
  • Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index Global — Annual country rankings based on perceived public-sector corruption. Widely used to study governance, economic development, and cross-border investment.
  • Wikipedia – List of Countries by Credit Rating Global — Current long-term sovereign credit ratings from S&P Global, Moody's, and Fitch for 130+ countries, maintained as a Wikipedia article. Ratings and outlooks are updated as agencies announce changes. Historical snapshots of the article can be retrieved via the Wikimedia Revisions API, making it possible to reconstruct a rating history by scraping past article versions — see the Wikimedia REST API entry for Python access.
  • World Input-Output Database (WIOD) CSV Global — Annual world input-output tables for 43 countries and a model of the rest of the world, covering 56 industries. Traces global production and value chains, capturing how industries across countries are interconnected through intermediate input flows. Widely used in research on global business networks, supply chains, and international trade in value added. By the University of Groningen.

Python Example

# World Bank — fetch GDP per capita for selected countries
import wbgapi as wb
df = wb.data.DataFrame("NY.GDP.PCAP.CD", economy=["USA", "NLD", "DEU"])

See also: Economic Data (with APIs) for time series databases with API access (FRED, IMF, OECD, ECB, BIS).