World Development Indicators 2009

World Development Indicators (WDI) 2009 arrives at a moment of great uncertainty for the global economy. The crisis that began more than a year ago in the U.S. housing market spread to the global financial system and is now taking its toll on real output and incomes. As a consequence, an additional 50 million people will be left in extreme poverty. And if the crisis deepens and widens or is prolonged, other development indicators, school enrollments, women's employment, child mortality, will be affected, jeopardizing progress toward the millennium development goals. Statistics help us understand the events that triggered the crisis and measure its impact. Along with this year's 91 data tables, each section of…