$0
Price
Free and open to everyone
Report
Should I Use Our World in Data?
Research and data to make progress against the world's largest problems.
Depends
DependsIt's free, so there's nothing to buy — use it if you need credible global development data with clean, citable charts.
Free nonprofit data publication — nothing to buy. Great for global trends; no support, no official API, some allege bias.
Confidence: Medium
Yes
Free tier
All articles, charts, and datasets
$1.8M
Notable funding
Gates Foundation grant via Oxford Martin, 2018
Left-Center
Bias rating
Per Media Bias/Fact Check
Value for money
5
Completely free, no paywall
Ease of use
4
Clean charts, new search added 2025
Feature depth
4
Data explorers, downloads, open-source code
Security posture
4
No incidents found; Cloudflare-protected
Pros
- Entirely free: all articles, charts, and datasets open to everyone¹
- Open-source code and downloadable datasets on GitHub³
- Cited in peer-reviewed journals, from Springer to MDPI11
- Interactive explorers for COVID, climate, health, energy, and more
- Ranked a top free Statista alternative for global statistics10
Cons
Gotchas
- mediumIt's a publication, not a vendor: no helpdesk, no SLAs, no uptime guarantees.²
- mediumEditorial framing is disputed — some communities argue donor money skews its optimism.⁸
- mediumNo official API — you depend on CSV downloads or unofficial scrapers like Apify.12
- lowLeft-Center bias rating means some audiences may contest its framing in citations.⁷
Best for
- Journalists citing global trends
- Students and academics
- Policy and NGO analysts
- Slide decks needing clean charts
Not for
- Teams needing real-time or commercial market data
- Buyers wanting SLA-backed vendor support
- Audiences rejecting editorial framing — critics allege bias
- Apps needing an official, supported API
Pricing
Everything
$0
- All articles and interactive charts
- Downloadable CSV datasets
- Open-source code and tools
Security
No known public vulnerabilities found in the sources reviewed.
What users say
Redditors and bloggers mostly praise it as a free, chart-rich reference; a vocal minority alleges donor-driven framing.
“Our World in Data is an awesome resource”
“Our World In Data is consumerist propaganda”
“My main source is Our World in Data”
Alternatives
Compare Our World in Data with each alternative.
Statista
Paid, broader commercial and business statistics.
Our World in Data vs StatistaWorld Bank Open Data
Free official country-level economic indicators.
Our World in Data vs World Bank Open DataUN Data
Free UN statistical databases across agencies.
CIA World Factbook
Quick country profiles and reference facts.
Full analysis
Based on 30+ public sources; user sentiment drawn mainly from Reddit threads and blogs, no structured review ratings.
Sources
- Our World in Data — official siteourworldindata.orgofficial
- Our World in Data — Wikipediaen.wikipedia.orgofficial
- OWID GitHub orggithub.comofficial
- Y Combinator profileycombinator.comofficial
- How we're fundedourworldindata.orgofficial
- Oxford Martin School grant announcementoxfordmartin.ox.ac.uknews
- Media Bias/Fact Check ratingmediabiasfactcheck.comreview
review
- Reddit, r/neoliberal praise threadreddit.comreview
- Statista alternatives roundupexplodingtopics.comreview
- Springer academic citationlink.springer.comnews
- Apify OWID scraperapify.comreview
- Cloudflare Project Galileo case studycloudflare.comsecurity
- OWID privacy policyourworldindata.orgsecurity
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