Why there are data differences between the latest World Development Indicators (WDI) CD-ROM and to previous years? Don historical numbers stay the same?
Historical data on the WDI CDs and WDI Online can and often does change with each annual edition. We advise customers to use our most current data set since it provides not only data for the latest year available, but also revisions to previously published data. In most cases, this is due to estimates becoming more robust over time given better collection methods and more recent surveys. Changes in methodology or changes in data sources are also possible. In certain instances, data which have been determined to be questionable, may be deleted. Our standard practice is to preserve historical time-series as much as possible. In a very few cases, revisions to time-series sometimes cause breaks in series which cannot be reconciled by linking or other estimation techniques. For example, in the case of Former Soviet Union countries, estimates prior to the early 1990s could not be reconciled with newly published statistics and had to be dropped. Therefore WDI Online and each new CD-ROM contai
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