Our World in Data

What it is

Our World in Data (OWID) is a free, non-profit publication on the world's largest problems: poverty, disease, climate change, energy, education, food and many more. It is a collaboration between researchers at the University of Oxford and the Global Change Data Lab, the non-profit that runs the site. Its About page lists more than 14,000 interactive charts across more than 120 topics (as of 2026-09).

Why analysts use it

• Practice data that is already documented. Each chart shows its sources, definitions and notes on how the data was processed, and the data behind charts can be downloaded. That makes it ideal for learning: you spend your time analysing, not guessing what a column means.
• A model of good charts. OWID charts are plain, labelled and honest about uncertainty and changes in definitions. Studying them teaches you more than most dashboard galleries.
• Portfolio topics with real stakes. A project on vaccination rates, electricity access or crop yields in your region is more interesting to a reader than yet another sales dashboard, and shows you can work with real-world data.

Licence and reuse

OWID's own charts and writing are published under a permissive Creative Commons licence, so you can reuse them with credit. Much of the underlying data comes from third parties such as the WHO, UN and World Bank, which have their own terms; always cite the original source as OWID does.

How to use it well

1. Pick a question, not a dataset: "How has access to electricity changed in South Asia since 2000?"
2. Download the data for that chart and load it into your spreadsheet, BI tool or notebook.
3. Reproduce the OWID chart first to check your numbers, then go further: join a second indicator, compare regions, or look at rates instead of totals.
4. Write up what you found, including the limits of the data.

Is it worth your time?

Yes. It costs nothing, the data is trustworthy, and it pushes you to ask questions that matter.

Common questions

Is the data up to date? It varies by indicator. Each chart shows the source and the latest year available; check it before drawing conclusions.

Can I use it for commercial work? Check the licence of the underlying source for that dataset.