World Development Indicators, April 2026 Update: the latest demographic data, PPP conversion factors, and the Women, Business and the Law 2.0 indicators

On April 8, 2026, the World Development Indicators (WDI) database introduced new and revised data across a wide range of development topics. 

What’s New in the April 2026 Release (by theme)? 

People

• Key demographic indicators have been updated with 2024 data, providing the latest insights on birth rates, death rates, and fertility, as well as life expectancy and survival to age 65, and offering an up-to-date view of global demographic trends. 

• Child mortality indicators are updated with 2024 data, including both mortality rates and the number of deaths for children under five, neonates, and infants, disaggregated by sex. These updates draw on the latest estimates from the UN Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation.

• Child malnutrition indicators including stunting, wasting, underweight, and overweight prevalence have been updated. These indicators help track progress and target interventions to address both undernutrition and overweight among children.

• Cause-of-death data now include updates through 2021, with expanded detail on COVID-19 and other major causes. This provides a clearer picture of health challenges and supports evidence-based action. 

• The proportion of seats held by women in national parliaments is now available for 2025, measuring the share of seats held by women in single or lower chambers.  

• Women, Business and the Law (WBL) 2.0 replaces the previous index, offering a more complete picture of gender equality in laws and regulations. 

Prosperity

• Purchasing power parity (PPP) conversion factors for gross domestic product (GDP) for Eurostat and OECD economies now include data for 2025. 

• PPP conversion factors for households and NPISH final consumption expenditure have been updated to also include 2025. The new data are extrapolated from the International Comparison Program benchmark PPPs and Consumer Price Index data from the IMF’s International Financial Statistics database.

• Enterprise Survey results offer insights into the current business environment, based on firm-level surveys with top managers and business owners. New surveys for Denmark, Egypt, Arab Rep., Fiji, Gabon, Germany, Kosovo, Maldives, Mauritania, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Solomon Islands, Sri Lanka, St. Lucia, Suriname, and Zimbabwe have been added. 

• The latest stock market data capture the scale and activity of domestic equity markets. 

   

Planet

• Electricity and energy use indicators include the most recent data on electricity generation by source: coal, hydro, natural gas, renewables etc. They also cover energy efficiency and per-capita energy consumption to track energy trends and assess progress toward cleaner energy.

   

Digital

• This update features the latest country values for internet access, as well as mobile cellular, fixed broadband, and fixed telephone subscriptions. 

   

The data is accessible through multiple platforms, including the WDI website, DataBank, and the Open Data portal. A complete list of updates is available in the full WDI release note for April 2026.