Search Tips

Searching for charts is done via an http request to https://ourworldindata.org/api/search

Query parameters:

• q — search string (keyword-based, Algolia-powered)
• hitsPerPage — number of results per page (default: 20)
• page — page number, 0-indexed (default: 0)

The result is a json that adheres to this schema:

export enum ChartRecordType {
    Chart = "chart",
    ExplorerView = "explorerView",
    MultiDimView = "multiDimView",
}

export enum ExplorerType {
    Grapher = "grapher",
    Indicator = "indicator",
    Csv = "csv",
}

type GrapherTabName = "LineChart" | "ScatterPlot" | "StackedArea" | "DiscreteBar" | "StackedDiscreteBar" | "SlopeChart" | "StackedBar" | "Marimekko" | "Table" | "WorldMap"

interface BaseSearchChartHit {
    url: string
    title: string
    slug: string
    availableEntities: string[]
    originalAvailableEntities?: string[]
    objectID: string
    variantName?: string
    subtitle?: string
    availableTabs: GrapherTabName[]
}

type SearchChartViewHit = BaseSearchChartHit & {
    type: ChartRecordType.Chart
}

type SearchExplorerViewHit = BaseSearchChartHit & {
    type: ChartRecordType.ExplorerView
    explorerType: ExplorerType
    queryParams: string
}

type SearchMultiDimViewHit = BaseSearchChartHit & {
    type: ChartRecordType.MultiDimView
    queryParams: string
    chartConfigId: string
}

export type SearchChartHit =
    | SearchChartViewHit
    | SearchExplorerViewHit
    | SearchMultiDimViewHit

interface SearchResult {
    query: string
    results: SearchChartHit[]
    nbHits: number
    page: number
    nbPages: number
    hitsPerPage: number
}

The response json can be quite verbose, so don't pull the search results into your context window but instead use jq or a programming language to extract the information you need (often title, subtitle and url are the most relevant fields for any given hit).

Example - extract key fields from top 5 results:

curl -s "https://ourworldindata.org/api/search?q=life+expectancy&hitsPerPage=5" | jq '.results[] | {title, subtitle, url, availableTabs}'

Search Tips

The search is a keyword based search operated by Algolia. The query param q is used to submit the search string. The vocabulary used at OWID is often following that of topic specialists, so search for "death rate malaria" instead of "people who died from malaria", or "literacy" instead of "people who can read".

Results are sorted by relevance - usually the first page of hits will contain the best results. If you get a large number of charts back, and the top charts don't seem to be ideal matches, try refining the search with additional terms. If you don't get any results, try a search with slightly different terms or synonyms.

It is often a good idea to communicate the top hits back to the user and either ask them which chart/data to proceed with or to pick the best but let them know the title of a few others that were also considered.

Available Visualizations

The availableTabs field indicates what visualizations a chart supports. Use these mappings when constructing URLs:

Tab Name (from API)	URL tab parameter	Description
LineChart	line	Time series line chart
WorldMap	map	Choropleth world map
Table	table	Data table view
DiscreteBar	discrete-bar	Bar chart
SlopeChart	slope	Slope chart comparing two time points
Marimekko	marimekko	Marimekko/mosaic chart
ScatterPlot	scatter	Scatter plot
StackedArea	stacked-area	Stacked area chart
StackedBar	stacked-bar	Stacked bar chart

To display a specific visualization, append ?tab=<value> to the chart URL. For example:

https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/life-expectancy?tab=map

Using Search Results

To fetch either the visual chart or the data, use the url property as is verbatim, including all query params. Consult the fetch-chart-image or fetch-chart-data skills for more details on how best to request either one.