Introduction to Tutorial
This tutorial's purpose is to assist individuals using the World Development Indicators or WDI Online. The WDI Online database contains more than 500 indicators covering over 80 different tables. WDI Online contains statistics that are searchable back to 1960 for over 80 countries.
The tutorial will present a number of research questions and then provide step-by-step instructions on how to answer those questions using the WDI Online database.
Logging into WDI Online
To start WDI Online, first click on the WDI Online database from the Business & Economics Library homepage by selecting WDI Online from the Database drop-down list.
You will then be presented with the World Bank Group portal to three different databases including WDI Online. Click on the WDI Online hyper-link pictured below.
Select Country
Example One: What is the illiteracy rate of adult women in Liberia?
After selecting the WDI Online database, a screen presents itself allowing you to select a country from a list. Scroll down the list and select Liberia. After selecting Liberia, click on the Select button to move your selection to the Selected Countries list. Below is part of what you should see.
After moving Liberia to the Selected Countries list, click on the red button.
Select Series
The next step is to select the data series. After clicking on the red Select button you will be taken to the Select Series screen. Scroll down the list of available series and click on the Illiteracy rate, adult female (% of females ages 15 and above) option. You should see something similar to the graphic below:
After selecting the Illiteracy rate, adult female (% of females ages 15 and above) list option, click on the red button.
Select Years
The final step before retrieving your results, you need to select the date range for the data series. In the research example, select the year 2001 as for the current information on the topic of illiteracy of adult women in Liberia. Click on the Select button and you will be presented with a similar presentation as below:
Click on the red button to display the results of this query.
Display Results
Example One: What is the illiteracy rate of adult women in Liberia?
The final step of the process. The results from your selections will be displayed in a fashion similar to the graphic below. From the results retrieved, the illiteracy rate among adult women 15 years and older in Liberia was 62% in 2001.
The WDI Online database allows you to display your data in various ways. You can change the orientation, the viewing and scaling options, and you can export the data in ASCII or Microsoft Excel formats.
Using WDI's Tree View
Example Two: What is the percent change in GDP for Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and Peru from the years 1998 through 2001?
WDI Online provides an alternative interface to its database. The alternative interface is called a tree view and it allows for a different way to access the WDI Online reference information. To begin using the WDI Online database to answer the second example question, start from the initial Select countries page. Look for the blue Tree View hyper-link on the left side of the screen. After clicking on the Tree View hyper-link, click on the plus sign next to the Region option. After looking at the options, click on Latin America & Caribbean. You should see something similar to the screen excerpt below.
Select Series
From the Available Countries list, click on Argentina and then click on the blue Select button. Repeat for Brazil, Chile, and Peru. After selecting these four countries, click on the red button. You will then be taken to the WDI Online Select Series page. From the Select Series page, click on the blue Tree View hyper-link. Scroll down the list until you reach the National accounts (derived) category, and select the Growth rates option. A number of data sets will appear in the Available series list on the right of the page. Scroll down the list until you see the GDP growth (annual %) option. Click on this option and then click on the blue Select button. The screen should look similar to the screen shot below:
After selecting the GDP growth (annual %) option, click on the button to continue.
Select Years
From the Available years list, select multiple years by holding down
the CTRL key and clicking 2001, 2000, 1999,
and 1998. Click on the blue Select button. Part of the screen
is pictured below.
Click on the button to continue.
View Results
Example Two: What is the percent change in GDP for Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and Peru from the years 1998 through 2001?
Finally, after selecting all of the options, the results will be displayed. To get a better view of the data to answer our research example, change the Orientation list to By countries. Doing so will display all of the countries that we are interested in a single table. The display should be similar to what you see below:
The WDI Online database is a good resource for answering the type of research questions covered by this tutorial.