Indicators Reference

MACROVISONOMICS provides access to thousands of economic indicators from 14+ active sources including World Bank, FRED, IMF, OECD, Eurostat, ECB, ILO, WHO, BIS, DBnomics, and Statistics Canada. This guide covers the most commonly used indicators.

Indicator Categories

Economy

GDP, GNI, trade, investment

Employment

Unemployment, labor force, wages

Prices

Inflation, CPI, deflators

Demographics

Population, life expectancy

Health

Health spending, mortality

Environment

CO2, energy, resources

Economic Indicators

Gross Domestic Product (GDP)

Indicator	Code	Unit
GDP (current US$)	NY.GDP.MKTP.CD	US Dollars
GDP (constant 2015 US$)	NY.GDP.MKTP.KD	US Dollars
GDP growth (annual %)	NY.GDP.MKTP.KD.ZG	Percentage
GDP per capita (current US$)	NY.GDP.PCAP.CD	US Dollars
GDP per capita, PPP	NY.GDP.PCAP.PP.CD	International $

When to use which GDP measure:

Current US$: Comparing countries in today’s dollars
Constant US$: Tracking real growth (inflation-adjusted)
PPP: Comparing living standards across countries
Per capita: Normalizing for population differences

Trade & Investment

Indicator	Code	Unit
Exports of goods and services (% of GDP)	NE.EXP.GNFS.ZS	Percentage
Imports of goods and services (% of GDP)	NE.IMP.GNFS.ZS	Percentage
Trade (% of GDP)	NE.TRD.GNFS.ZS	Percentage
Foreign direct investment, net inflows	BX.KLT.DINV.CD.WD	US Dollars
Current account balance (% of GDP)	BN.CAB.XOKA.GD.ZS	Percentage

Government & Debt

Indicator	Code	Unit
Government expenditure (% of GDP)	NE.CON.GOVT.ZS	Percentage
Tax revenue (% of GDP)	GC.TAX.TOTL.GD.ZS	Percentage
External debt stocks (% of GNI)	DT.DOD.DECT.GN.ZS	Percentage
Central government debt (% of GDP)	GC.DOD.TOTL.GD.ZS	Percentage

Employment Indicators

Indicator	Code	Unit
Unemployment, total (% of labor force)	SL.UEM.TOTL.ZS	Percentage
Unemployment, youth (% of youth labor force)	SL.UEM.1524.ZS	Percentage
Labor force participation rate	SL.TLF.CACT.ZS	Percentage
Employment in agriculture (% of total)	SL.AGR.EMPL.ZS	Percentage
Employment in industry (% of total)	SL.IND.EMPL.ZS	Percentage
Employment in services (% of total)	SL.SRV.EMPL.ZS	Percentage

Price & Inflation Indicators

Indicator	Code	Unit
Inflation, consumer prices (annual %)	FP.CPI.TOTL.ZG	Percentage
Inflation, GDP deflator (annual %)	NY.GDP.DEFL.KD.ZG	Percentage
Consumer price index (2010 = 100)	FP.CPI.TOTL	Index
Official exchange rate (LCU per US$)	PA.NUS.FCRF	LCU

Demographic Indicators

Indicator	Code	Unit
Population, total	SP.POP.TOTL	Number
Population growth (annual %)	SP.POP.GROW	Percentage
Life expectancy at birth	SP.DYN.LE00.IN	Years
Birth rate (per 1,000 people)	SP.DYN.CBRT.IN	Per 1,000
Death rate (per 1,000 people)	SP.DYN.CDRT.IN	Per 1,000
Fertility rate (births per woman)	SP.DYN.TFRT.IN	Births
Urban population (% of total)	SP.URB.TOTL.IN.ZS	Percentage

Health Indicators

Indicator	Code	Unit
Health expenditure (% of GDP)	SH.XPD.CHEX.GD.ZS	Percentage
Hospital beds (per 1,000 people)	SH.MED.BEDS.ZS	Per 1,000
Physicians (per 1,000 people)	SH.MED.PHYS.ZS	Per 1,000
Mortality rate, infant	SP.DYN.IMRT.IN	Per 1,000 live births
Mortality rate, under-5	SH.DYN.MORT	Per 1,000 live births

Education Indicators

Indicator	Code	Unit
Education expenditure (% of GDP)	SE.XPD.TOTL.GD.ZS	Percentage
School enrollment, primary (% net)	SE.PRM.NENR	Percentage
School enrollment, secondary (% net)	SE.SEC.NENR	Percentage
Literacy rate, adult (% of people 15+)	SE.ADT.LITR.ZS	Percentage

Environment Indicators

Indicator	Code	Unit
CO2 emissions (metric tons per capita)	EN.ATM.CO2E.PC	Metric tons
CO2 emissions (kt)	EN.ATM.CO2E.KT	Kilotons
Renewable energy consumption (% of total)	EG.FEC.RNEW.ZS	Percentage
Forest area (% of land area)	AG.LND.FRST.ZS	Percentage
Energy use (kg oil equivalent per capita)	EG.USE.PCAP.KG.OE	kg oil eq

Understanding Indicator Units

Unit Type	Meaning	Example
Current US$	Value at today’s prices	GDP, Trade volume
Constant US$	Inflation-adjusted (base year)	Real GDP growth
PPP	Purchasing Power Parity adjusted	Living standard comparisons
% of GDP	Share of total economy	Government spending
Per capita	Per person	CO2 emissions/person
Per 1,000	Rate per thousand people	Birth rate, Hospital beds
Index	Relative to base year	CPI (2010=100)

Finding Indicators

By Topic

Use the category filters:

Economic Growth
Trade & Finance
Employment & Labor
Prices & Inflation
Demographics & Population
Health
Education
Environment

By Search

Type natural language queries:

“GDP growth” → GDP growth rate indicators
“unemployment” → Unemployment indicators
“carbon emissions” → CO2/GHG indicators

By Code

If you know the indicator code, search directly using any source’s format:

“NY.GDP.MKTP.KD.ZG” → World Bank: GDP growth (annual %)
“GDPC1” → FRED: Real Gross Domestic Product
“UNRATE” → FRED: Civilian Unemployment Rate
“UNE_DEAP_SEX_AGE_RT” → ILO: Unemployment rate by sex and age
“WHOSIS_000001” → WHO: Life expectancy at birth

​Indicators Reference

​Indicator Categories

Economy

Employment

Prices

Demographics

Health

Environment

​Economic Indicators

​Gross Domestic Product (GDP)

​Trade & Investment

​Government & Debt

​Employment Indicators

​Price & Inflation Indicators

​Demographic Indicators

​Health Indicators

​Education Indicators

​Environment Indicators

​Understanding Indicator Units

​Finding Indicators

​By Topic

​By Search

​By Code