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Table of Contents
On October 8, 2026, the World Development Indicators (WDI) database published new and revised data across a wide range of development topics.
What’s New in the October 2026 Release?
People
- Food security and nutrition data from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) now run through 2024, including the prevalence of undernourishment and of moderate or severe food insecurity.
- Labor market indicators have also been refreshed with the latest national estimates from the International Labour Organization (ILO): employment-to-population ratios, labor force participation, unemployment, youth not in employment, education or training (NEET), part-time employment, and the share of women in senior and middle management, broken down by age and sex where available.
Prosperity
- Poverty and inequality indicators are updated through 2025. They cover headcount ratios and poverty gaps at the $3.00, $4.20, and $8.30 a day poverty lines (2021 PPP); societal, national, and multidimensional poverty; the Gini index and income shares; and shared prosperity indicators tracking income growth among the bottom 40 percent.
- The Worldwide Governance Indicators now include estimates and scores through 2025 for all six dimensions, from Control of Corruption to Voice and Accountability.
- Balance of payments indicators have been refreshed with the latest IMF data, including foreign direct investment inflows, remittances as a share of GDP, current account balances, and exports of goods and services.
- Purchasing power parity (PPP) conversion factor for households and NPISHs final consumption expenditure is updated using Consumer Price Index (CPI) data sourced from IMF
- Data on military expenditure and arms transfers are now available for 2025.
