What's new in the World Development Indicators, October 2026: poverty and inequality updates, new food security & nutrition data, latest energy statistics

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. Planet • New 2024 data have been published on access to clean fuels and technologies for cooking (used to monitor SDG 7.1.2) for total, urban, and rural populations. • Energy statistics from the International Energy Agency (IEA) have been refreshed with 2024 data for non-OECD economies and, for selected electricity indicators, 2025 data for OECD economies. • New 2024 FAO data cover fertilizer use, land use, forests, irrigation, and cereal production and yields, together with updated crop, livestock, and food production indexes. Infrastructure • Data from the World Intellectual Property Organization on patent, industrial design, and trademark applications by residents and non-residents have been updated for 2022–2024. Where to find it As always, the data is available through the Open Data site, DataBank, the Data Catalog, bulk downloads, and the WDI API. The full details are in the October 2026 release note.