Politics Research Guide

EPR "identifies all politically relevant ethnic groups and their access to state power in every country of the world from 1946 to 2021. It includes annual data on over 800 groups and codes the degree to which their representatives held executive-level state power—from total control of the government to overt political discrimination." Component datasets include ethnic conflict, geocoded settlement patterns, transnational ethnic kin groups, linguistic and religious dimensions of ethnicity, and the ethnic composition of global refugee stocks. Datasets in multiple formats. Extensive source documentation is available for each country through the EPR Atlas.

The Minorities at Risk (MAR) Project "monitors and analyzes the status and conflicts of politically-active communal groups" and currently maintains data on 283 politically active ethnic groups. The centerpiece of the project is a dataset that tracks groups on political, economic, and cultural dimensions. The project also maintains analytic summaries of group histories, risk assessments, and group chronologies for each group in the dataset." See also the recent article "The Use and Misuse of the 'Minorities at Risk' Project" in the Annual Review of Political Science.

CREG focuses on 165 countries (all countries with a population above 500,000 in 2004) during the post-WWII era and collects "population data for the principal ethnic and religious groups in a country," which it uses to create a set of projections on the relative sizes of the different groups in each country. An ongoing project; data is in Excel.

Listing of datasets available from our Data and Statistical Services site. You may also want to browse through the data organized by world region.

Replication data from Fearon (2003) "Ethnic and Cultural Diversity by Country," Journal of Economic Growth 8(2): 195-222.

From Alesina et. al (2003) "Fractionalization," Journal of Economic Growth 8(2): 155-94.

Replication data for Sambanis (2000) "Partition as a Solution to Ethnic War: An Empirical Critique of the Theoretical Literature," World Politics 52(4): 437-483.

ICPSR provides member colleges and universities with access to an extensive data archive. Search by keyword or browse by thematic categories.

The ARDA is a major repository of data collections on American and international religious groups, including public opinion, U.S. congregational membership, and GIS data.

Measures "government-level favoritism toward, and disfavor against, 30 religious denominations" in over 200 countries from independence (or 1800, whichever is later) to 2015. Each state-year observation measures the state's institutional favoritism on 28 variables, which in turn are the basis for five composite indices: official status, religious education, financial support, regulatory burdens, and freedom of practice. These are also combined into a single composite score, the GRP score. Data in multiple formats.

The RAS project measures the extent of government involvement in religion or the lack thereof for 175 states on a yearly basis between 1990 and 2008. Covers more than 100 variables on government support, restrictions, and discrimination against religions, such as religious education, the registration of religious organizations, restrictions on proselytizing, and religious requirements for holding public office or citizenship. Data in multiple formats.

This project of the Pew Research Center examines a wide range of issues concerning religion and its relationship to public life, both in the United States and beyond. It conducts public opinion polling, demographic research, media content analysis and other empirical social science research on religious individuals and organizations and on public policies shaped by religious views. Data and reports can be searched by question or browsed by year and topic.

Aims to investigate the link between the security and behavior of states and the situation and security of the women within them. More than 170,000 data points on 175 countries and over 350 variables on the security and status of women in nine issue areas: physical, economic, legal, community, family, maternity, politics, societal investment in women, and security in the state. Data sources include laws, statistics, statements of general fact made by experts and authorities, anecdotes, interpretations, and other information. Data in Excel format; requires free registration.

Comparative data on number of seats held by women in upper and lower houses of national parliaments. Data in Excel/csv 2019+ (for 1997-2018 see link to IPU's archive site; these are in HTML tables). Also included in the UN Sustainable Development Goals Data, Target 5.5.

Information on women's inclusion in parliamentary bodies in over 150 countries from 1945 to 2003. Information is provided on female suffrage, the first female member of parliament, yearly percentages of women in parliaments, when women reached important representational milestones (such as 10 %, 20 %, and 30 % of a legislature), and when women achieved highly-visible political positions, such as prime minister or president.

Joint project of IDEA, IPU, and Stockholm University provides information on the various types of electoral quotas in existence today, detailing the percentages and targets in countries where they are applicable. For each quota, the database identifies its source as a constitutional, legislative, or political party mandated quota. It also identifies the form as legislated candidate quotas, reserved seat quotas, or voluntary political party quotas. The Database details quota regulations but does not specify whether these were complied with in the last election. Also includes some sub-national coverage. Focus is on quotas currently in effect.

"Provides over-time and cross-national data on women on high courts. The dataset includes information on the year the first woman was appointed and the gender composition of the high court. High courts include single peak courts as found in many common law countries and constitutional courts and highest appellate courts as found in many civil law countries." Data on first woman: 1946–2020; data on composition: 1970 or court creation–2013. Countries included have a population of 200,000 or greater. Data compiled from a combination of secondary sources and information from countries' courts and judges. Data in multiple formats.

Database of international scholarship on women's participation in political life compiled by the Inter-Parliamentary Union. Can be browsed by country, organization, subject, and year as well as searched by keyword. 1948-2013

This study sought to assess the degree to which women's movements and women's policy agencies affected policy processes by gendering the frames of the debates. contains 130 policy debates/observations from 13 countries coded on 28 concepts and over 110 variables.

The Social Institutions and Gender Index is an innovative measure of underlying discrimination against women for over 100 countries. While other indices measure gender inequalities in outcomes such as education and employment, the SIGI helps policy-makers and researchers understand what drives these outcomes.

Part of Andrew Reynolds's Queer Politics at Princeton project. Searchable map and database includes all out LGBTQI+ elected officials (primarily at the national and state/province level) around the world since 1976. Includes officials who publicly identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, pansexual, transgender, non-binary, gender-non-conforming, queer or intersex.

See this page on my American Politics guide for additional survey data and other sources related to identity politics in the U.S.