Energy levels, transition rates, and electron-impact ionization and excitation cross sections for W I are calculated by multi-configuration Dirac–Fock (MCDF) method using the MDFGME code which aims at improving the accuracies of the atomic data which has been crucial for spectroscopic diagnostics of erosion rate of W in plasma surface interaction. Particular attention has been paid to the core–core (CC) and core–valence (CV) electron correlation effects on the level energies and radiative transition rates. The inclusion of the CC and CV electron correlations significantly improves an agreement with the atomic structure data based on experiments. The electron-impact ionization and excitation cross sections are obtained employing binary-encounter Bethe model and scaled plane wave Born approximation, respectively, from the wave functions by the MCDF calculation The obtained collision cross sections and rate coefficients are compared with other available data, which has been used to determine the erosion rate of W with spectral lines in the range of 400–525 nm.