We forecast what every consumer on earth will spend.
World Data Lab began in a Vienna co-working space with two economists and a question about poverty. It is now around fifty people in Vienna, Washington DC and Nairobi.
Two World Bank economists started World Data Lab in 2014 to fix the data on developing countries.
Homi Kharas had spent twenty-six years at the World Bank, and Wolfgang Fengler had worked there too. Both knew how often the figures on the fastest-growing countries were years old, estimated from a survey that was never repeated, or missing altogether.
They set out to build the numbers themselves, person by person, and wrote the mission down as making everyone count. The first result was Population.io, and Wolfgang's TED talk about it put the new lab on the map.
How we got here.
- 2014
The lab opens in Vienna
Homi Kharas and Wolfgang Fengler found World Data Lab. Population.io, which tells anyone their place in the world's population, is its first product.
- 2017
The World Poverty Clock
From two tables in a Vienna co-working space, the lab publishes the World Poverty Clock and asks whether people are really getting poorer. Clocks on hunger, water, migration and skills follow.
- 2018
From demography to spending
Market Pro, now World Data Intelligence, extends the demographic engine into forecasts of consumer spending. The Washington DC office opens.
- 2022
Nairobi
The Nairobi office opens, so African insights are built by African data scientists. The Internet Poverty Index marks the shift from measuring existing indicators to creating new ones.
- 2023
Series A
A team of more than fifty, a new office and a Series A round from Sparring Capital Partners, CHI Impact Capital and Catagonia.
- 2025
Ten years, and a new round
A multi-million round led by Sparring Capital takes the model beyond consumer goods into technology and other industries, and into AI across World Data Intelligence. Data Talks, the podcast, launches the same month.
- Today
Eight billion people, one model
World Data Intelligence projects spending for 194 countries to 2050 and more than 9,400 cities to 2040, across 200+ categories, and is used by Uber, Coca-Cola, Colgate-Palmolive and a global beauty brand.
Three offices.
Vienna
Global headquarters since 2014. Research, data science and engineering. Untere Donaustraße 11, 1020 Vienna.
Washington DC
Open since 2018. Commercial work and partnerships in the Americas.
Nairobi
Open since 2022. The Africa research hub, where African data scientists build African insights.
Inside the lab.
The World Bank's Anna Bjerde in the Vienna office
The Group's Managing Director of Operations came to see the analytics the team is building.
The team at the NACS Convenience Summit Europe
On stage and in the room with Europe's convenience retailers.
The first stakeholder dinner in New York
Clients, partners and friends who use the model in the American market.
Who we build with.
Trusted by global brands
Join us.
Open roles
Every current vacancy is on our Personio careers page, in Vienna, Washington DC, Nairobi and remotely.
Our people
The leadership team and the six teams behind the model.
Internships
Three to six months in Vienna or Nairobi, on real work from the first week.
Let's talk through your market question.
Tell us the decision you are trying to make, and we will show you the forecasts that bear on it.