ABOUT NUMBERS FOR DEVELOPMENT

IDB’s Open Data portal that showcases socio-economic indicators for the Latin American and the Caribbean Region. It is a joint partnership between seven data sources:

Agrimonitor

(a database that enables policy makers and analysts to track agricultural policies and to assess and measure the composition of the support to agriculture)

INTrade

(comprehensive online gateway bringing together information on integration and trade in the region)

Latin Macro Watch

(over 500 indicators consolidating data on macroeconomics, social issues, trade, capital flows, markets and governance)

Public Management

(a set of public management indicators based on methodologies developed by the IDB about the performance of Managing for Development Results (MfDR) and Civil Service in LAC region)

Social Pulse

(full set of key indicators on living conditions in Latin America and the Caribbean population)

SIMS

(the main source of information on labor markets in Latin America and the Caribbean.).

Sociometro

(a complete dataset of social indicators providing insight into Latin America and the Caribbean’s socioeconomic conditions).

IMPORTANT FEATURES

  • Data on Latin American and Caribbean countries at a granular level not available in other sources.
  • Unique indicators, such as Dollarization, Domestic Public Debt, the Poverty Wage, and Percent Participation in Pension and Social Security.
  • Social Outlook indicators carefully curated by IDB social sector specialists.
  • Interactive and animated data visualizations.
  • Quick and easy access to data for all - economists, statisticians, journalists, and development practitioners.
  • Easy to reuse and share the data.

Combine indicators from different dimensions of socio-economic development, such as social outlook and macroeconomic indicators.

Select the areas of development that interest you most, view the data, generate graphs, and compare trends in real time.

Zoom in and compare values for different countries. Take a snapshot of values for one particular year.

See an interactive visual snapshot of development for each country using our Country a Glance tool which allows you to quickly look and compare how these different facets have developed over time.

POPULAR INDICATORS

See the most popular indicators (based on number of views), by country, and access their data in real time

-0.91% Current Account Balance: % of GDP Economy - Balance of Payments
1.21% Capital Account Balance: % of GDP Economy - Balance of Payments
6,749M Capital Account Balance (US$ mill,) Economy - Balance of Payments
9,527 GDP per capita (US$) Economy - National Accounts

About the API (Application programming interface)

This API overview describes how to query the indicators in Inter-American Development Bank’s (IDB) Numbers for Development (N4D) database and show the outputs.

The API allows you to access over two thousand indicators on macro-economic, social, and trade on Latin American and Caribbean countries for a period that spans from 1940 to 2013, depending on the indicator.Data is in a time-series format. For the most part data are at an annual frequency. However, for some macro-economic and financial indicators, there are data at the monthly and quarterly frequencies.

The API has implemented a RESTful interface that allows users to query the data using selection parameters as shown in examples below. The API provides XML and JSON representations for the expected output data.

Applications

The API is a resource made available to programmers and data users to explore the N4D dataset and build new applications using the N4D open data set. You are encouraged to develop software applications that utilize and add value to the N4D dataset. The N4D itself is a collection of three major databases in the IDB with their own application and user interface. These applications are: Latin America Watch (LMW) for macroeconomic and financial data; Sociometro for data on demographics, education, housing & sanitation, poverty and inequality; and, INTrade for trade, tariffs and trade indices.

The N4D web application (data.iadb.org) uses this API to access the database and present it on the website.

API Documentation

This documentation describes the Basic Call Structure for the API to allow you to start developing applications. It also includes examples of the API calls as well as information on how to access the codes and names of indicators and countries that have to be used in the API query. These can be pasted directly into your browser and run to view instant results. You can also customize these sample API calls with different parameter values.

The following examples are for making API calls to fetch the data and metadata (country and indicator names, data topics and sub-topics).

Metadata API URL

Country :Basic call structure is as shown below.

'http://api-data.iadb.org/metadata/country?searchtype=&searchvalue=&languagecode=&responsetype='
  • Where, searchtype is code or name:
    • Searchvalue: is the value to search (Code/Name/All)
    • Responsetype is xml or json
    • Languagecode can be en / es

Examples :

Use the URL below to get country metadata with country code “ABW” in English language.
'http://api-data.iadb.org/metadata/country?searchtype=code&searchvalue=ABW&languagecode=en&responsetype=xml'

Use URL the below to get country metadata with country name “Argentina” in English language.
'http://api-data.iadb.org/metadata/country?searchtype=name&searchvalue= Argentina &Languagecode=en&Responsetype=xml'

Indicator : 'http://api-data.iadb.org/metadata/indicator?searchtype=&searchvalue&languagecode=responsetype='

Data Topic : 'http://api-data.iadb.org/metadata/topic?searchtype=&searchvalue=&languagecode=responsetype='

Data Sub Topic : 'http://api-data.iadb.org/metadata/subtopic?searchtype=&searchvalue=&languagecode=responsetype='

Data API URL

Currently, the Data API allows data retrieval for a maximum of four (4) countries if ‘All’ indicators are selected; or, it allows a maximum of 10 Indicators when ‘All’ countries are selected.'http://api-data.iadb.org/datasite/'

Query string parameters :

    1) indicatorcode 2) countrycode 3) topiccode 4) subtopiccode 5) frequency 6) timeperiod 7) Languagecode 8) Responsetype :- xml/json

Examples :

Query data site data for country code ABW and frequency is year and language code en

'http://api-data.iadb.org/datasitedata?countrycode=abw&frequency=year&languagecode=en&responsetype=xml'

API Validation and Error Messages
API Scenario Message Status Code
Both API Success Data will be returned OK = 200
Both API Exception occurred in the code. An error occurred, please try again or contact the administrator InternalServerError = 500
Both API When response type not passing / not valid Responsetype parameter should not be empty/null. NotAcceptable = 406
Meta Data API When data not available No [Country / Indicator /Topic / Sub Topic ] metadata with search type = {}, searchvalue= {} and language {} NotFound = 404
Data Site Data API When data not available No datasite data found NotFound = 404
Data Site Data API When indicator code or country code not passed Indicatorcode and Countrycode should be mandatory MethodNotAllowed = 405
Data Site Data API When indicator code == all & country code == all All countries and All indicators cannot be requested MethodNotAllowed = 405
Data Site Data API When indicator code == all & country code > 4 When All indicators’ data is requested, data can be requested for a maximum of 4 countries MethodNotAllowed = 405
Data Site Data API When country code == all & indicator code > 10 When All country data is requested, data can be requested for a maximum of 10 indicators MethodNotAllowed = 405

R Library

Iadbstats is an R library that enables data extraction and statistical computing from the IDB's open data portal "Numbers for development". It was developed following the World Bank´s Development Indicators library for R

https://github.com/EL-BID/Libreria-R-Numeros-para-el-Desarrollo

The Numbers for Development initiative (“N4D”) is conducted by the Inter-American Development Bank (“IDB”). The use of this N4D web page (the “Web Page”) is also governed by the Terms and Conditions set forth below and for the IDB Web Site.The IDB makes no warranties (i) with respect to the accuracy, validity, completeness or timeliness of any of the data provided under the Web Page and (ii) that any data is free of any errors and/or omissions.Further, by using this Web Page, you hereby (i) release the IDB from any claims related to or arising out of the use of the data displayed in the Web Page; (ii) understand the IDB shall not be liable for your use of the data contained on this Web Page; and (iii) acknowledge that you shall not claim or imply that the IDB endorses your use of the data.The data displayed in each of the indicators in the Web Page is fed from either (i) three separate IDB databases, as follows: INTrade, Latin Macro Watch and Sociómetro; or (ii) third parties.When using in your work the data displayed in the Web Page’s indicators, you shall cite the original source, which can be found upon clicking the “Metadata” button located to the right of each indicator. For the purposes of attribution and citations, in case of any contradiction or inconsistency between these Disclaimers and the Terms and Conditions provided in the IDB Web Site, these Disclaimers will govern.