Get started
Get data
On /data you describe the data you want in plain language, check the results, then download them or share a link. No account is needed. This example gets Kenya's population from 2000 to 2025 as a downloadable file and a shareable link, in just minutes.
Step 1: ask a question
Go to /data. Type a question into the search box and press Enter, or pick one of the suggestions below the box. For this example, type Population of Kenya and press Enter.
After a few seconds, /data restates your question as a sentence:
Kenya's total population, 1960 to 2025.
The sentence is your search. Each part of it (the measure, place, years, and sources) can be clicked to modify that portion of your search.
Step 2: change the years
- Click 1960 to 2025 in the sentence. The Edit Time Range panel opens.
- Change the first year from 1960 to 2000.
- Click Apply.
The sentence now reads:
Kenya's total population, 2000 to 2025.
Only the years change. The place and measure stay the same.
Step 3: check the results
Scroll to Results Preview. The table shows the year and value, newest year first, 10 rows at a time. Click Load more to see the rest. Check that it runs from 2025 back to 2000 and that the values are in tens of millions.
The panel beside the sentence shows the number of Rows in your data. Click Details to see the years covered, the number of series, and the licence.
Step 4: download the data
Click Download CSV. After a moment, a ZIP file downloads. It contains:
| File | Contents |
|---|---|
README.md | Start here: an overview of the download |
data/<slug>.csv | The data |
data/codes.csv | Plain names for each code in the data |
SOURCES.md | The sources used |
CITATION.cff | Citation details |
datapackage.json | Metadata in Frictionless Data Package format |
The data file looks like this:
stat_var,stat_var_label,observationAbout,observationAbout_label,time_period,value,unit,unit_label,currency,price_basis,base_year,measurementMethod,measurementMethod_label,provenance,provenance_label
dcid:Count_Person,Total population,country/KEN,Kenya,2000,30642890.0,,,,,,,,dc/base/WorldDevelopmentIndicators,World Development Indicators
dcid:Count_Person,Total population,country/KEN,Kenya,2001,31619170.0,,,,,,,,dc/base/WorldDevelopmentIndicators,World Development Indicators
…
dcid:Count_Person,Total population,country/KEN,Kenya,2025,57532493.0,,,,,,,,dc/base/WorldDevelopmentIndicators,World Development Indicators
Places, measures, and sources appear as codes, such as country/KEN for Kenya, and the _label column beside each code gives its name. data/codes.csv lists every code in the file with its name. The provenance column shows the source of every row. To cite the data, see Cite and licence.
To change what's included, click the arrow next to the download button. The Download options panel offers:
- Format: CSV, Excel, or Parquet.
- README and Sources & Citations: included by default. Untick them to leave those files out.
- Additional columns: ISO3 country codes, ISO2 country codes, and entity types.
Click Download CSV at the bottom of the panel to download with those choices.
Step 5: share a link
Click Share under the download button. Keep the default, Live Data, which reruns the search each time the link is opened. When the link appears, click the copy button beside it. The panel also shows a Download link, which downloads the latest data as a ZIP file with its citation.
The link ends in /s/ followed by an 8-character ID. Open it in a new tab to check that it loads the same sentence and results.
Next
- Share live data or a snapshot: When to share a live link and when to share a snapshot that keeps the numbers fixed.
- The data bundle: Every file in the download and how they're named.