Data & Statistics: Human Rights

Last updated 2022.04.06

• Better Life Index (OECD)
  There is more to life than the cold numbers of GDP and economic statistics. This Index allows you to compare well-being across countries, based on 11 topics the OECD has identified as essential, in the areas of material living conditions and quality of life.
• Child Well-Being (OECD)
  This dataset compare 21 policy-focussed measures of child well-being in six areas, chosen to cover the major aspects of children's lives: material well being; housing and environment; education; health and safety; risk behaviours; and quality of school life.
• CIRI Human Rights Dataset
  Contains standards-based quantitative information on government respect for 15 internationally recognized human rights for 202 countries, annually from 1981-2011. It is designed for use by scholars and students who seek to test theories about the causes and consequences of human rights violations, as well as policy makers and analysts who seek to estimate the human rights effects of a wide variety of institutional changes and public policies including democratization, economic aid, military aid, structural adjustment, and humanitarian intervention.
• Correlates of War project
  This project seeks to facilitate the collection, dissemination, and use of accurate and reliable quantitative data in international relations. It provides many datasets on international relations topics, including international conflict, militarized international disputes, bilateral trade, and diplomatic exchanges.
• Database on Immigrants in OECD countries (DIOC) (OECD)
  The new Database on Immigrants in OECD Countries (DIOC) provides comprehensive and comparative information on a broad range of demographic and labour market characteristics of immigrants living in OECD countries. The database has been compiled in collaboration with OECD national statistical offices. The main sources of data are population censuses and population registers, sometimes supplemented by labour force surveys. The DIOC includes information on demographic characteristics (age and gender), duration of stay, labour market outcomes (labour market status, occupations, sectors of activity), fields of study, educational attainment and the place of birth. The reference year of the data is the year 2000.
• Database of Political Institutions (World Bank)
  includes numerous measures of regime characteristics for many countries over the period 1975-present. Includes variables such as government tenure, stability, checks and balances, identification of parties with the government coalition or the opposition, and fragmentation of opposition and government parties in legislatures.
• Freedom in the World
  Provides comparative assessment of global political rights and civil liberties, and covers the period 1973-present. Contains survey ratings and narrative reports on 195 countries and 14 related and disputed territories
• Freedom of the Press
  Offers scores of press freedom for the years 1980-present. The index assesses the degree of print, broadcast, and internet freedom in every country in the world, analyzing the events of each calendar year. It provides numerical rankings and rates each country's media as "Free," "Partly Free," or "Not Free." Country narratives examine the legal environment for the media, political pressures that influence reporting, and economic factors that affect access to information.
• Freedom on the Net
  Assesses the degree of internet and digital media freedom around the world
• Gender Statistics (World Bank)
• Human Rights Data Analysis Group: Publications
  The Human Rights Data Analysis Group is a non-profit, non-partisan organization that applies rigorous science to the analysis of human rights violations around the world.
• Income Distribution (OECD)
  Comparable data on the distribution of household income provide both a point of reference for judging the performance of any country and an opportunity to assess the role of common drivers as well as drivers that are country-specific. They also allow governments to draw on the experience of different countries in order to learn "what works best" in narrowing income disparities and poverty. But achieving comparability in this field is also difficult, as national practices differ widely in terms of concepts, measures, and statistical sources.
• International Migration Database (OECD)
• Manifesto Project Database
  The Manifesto Project deals with different aspects of political party performance as well as the structure and development of party systems. The project is based on quantitative content analyses of parties' election programs from more than 50 countries covering all free, democratic elections since 1945.
• Millennium Development Goals Indicators
  In September 2000, UN members agreed to a set of eight Millennium Development Goals (all indicators are disaggregated by sex and urban/rural as far as possible), which provide a framework of time-bound targets by which progress can be measured. Targets are expected to be met by 2015. Annual reports
• Minorities at Risk (MAR)
  The Minorities at Risk (MAR) Project is a university-based research project that monitors and analyzes the status and conflicts of politically-active communal groups in all countries with a current population of at least 500,000. The project is designed to provide information in a standardized format that aids comparative research and contributes to the understanding of conflicts involving relevant groups. Selected project materials on more than 284 groups (the MAR database and codebook as well as detailed historical chronologies) are available.
• Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO)
  Offers extensive amounts of information on civil conflicts and small arms transfers.
• Polity IV Project
  Provides data on political regime characteristics and transitions for most countries since 1800.
• Poverty and Inequity Database (World Bank)
• Quality of Government Insitute
  Provides comprehensive datasets of cross-national political, economic and social information.
• Reporters Without Borders
  Home of the World Press Freedom Index (with data back to 2002), this site provides statistics on press freedom and incidents involving reporters and other journalists around the world. Individual country and regional reports are available,
• Social expenditure database (OECD)
  Social expenditure comprises cash benefits, direct in-kind provision of goods and services, and tax breaks with social purposes. Benefits may be targeted at low-income households, the elderly, disabled, sick, unemployed, or young persons. To be considered "social", programmes have to involve either redistribution of resources across households or compulsory participation. Social benefits are classified as public when general government (that is central, state, and local governments, including social security funds) controls the relevant financial flows. All social benefits not provided by general government are considered private. Private transfers between households are not considered as "social" and not included here. Net total social expenditure includes both public and private expenditure. It also accounts for the effect of the tax system by direct and indirect taxation and by tax breaks for social purposes. This indicator is measured as a percentage of GDP or USD per capita.
• Society at a Glance (OECD)
  The OECD biennial report providing internationally comparable data on demography and family characteristics, employment and wealth, mobility and housing, health status, social expenditure, subjective well-being, social cohesion, and other social measures. Included are such interesting variables as suicides, child care costs, prisoners, gender wage gaps, poverty and mothers in employment.
• Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI)
  Provides a series of datasets on international military expenditures, arms transfers, arms embargoes, multilateral peace operations, security trends and arms industries.
• UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS)
  Source for cross-nationally comparable statistics on education, science and technology, culture, and communication for more than 200 countries and territories.
• United Nations Development Programme: Human Development Reports
  Human Development Reports (HDRs) have been released most years since 1990 and have explored different themes through the human development approach. They have had an extensive influence on development debate worldwide. The reports, produced by the Human Development Report Office for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), are ensured of editorial independence by the United Nation’s General Assembly. Indeed they are seen as reports to UNDP, not of UNDP. This allows each report greater freedom to explore ideas and constructively challenge policies. The reports have also inspired national and regional analyses which, by their nature, usually address issues that are more country – or regionally - specific. A searchable index is available.
• United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees: Statistics & Operational Data
  UNHCR contributes to coordination and informed decision-making in refugee operations by providing accurate, relevant and timely data and statistics. This section provides data, reports, maps and other information essential for field operations. It also carries statistical reports on the people of concern to UNHCR: refugees, asylum-seekers, returned refugees, the internally displaced and stateless people. Detailed information on country of asylum, place of origin, gender, age, location and legal status of refugees is available. Indicators on the quality of refugee protection and UNHCR operations are also collected.
• United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights: Indicators
  "Human rights indicators are essential in the implementation of human rights standards and commitments, to support policy formulation, impact assessment and transparency. OHCHR has developed a framework of indicators to respond to a longstanding demand to develop and deploy appropriate statistical indicators in furthering the cause of human rights. One of the recommendations of the World Conference on Human Rights in Vienna was the use and analysis of indicators to help measure progress in human rights."
• UNSD Environmental Indicators
  Global environment statistics on ten indicator themes compiled from a wide range of data sources. The themes and indicator tables were selected based on the current demands for international environmental statistics and the availability of internationally comparable data. Indicator tables, charts and maps with relatively good quality and coverage across countries, as well as links to other international sources, are provided under each theme.
• Uppsala Conflict Data Program (UCDP)
  " ... "the world’s main provider of data on organized violence and the oldest ongoing data collection project for civil war, with a history of almost 40 years. Its definition of armed conflict has become the global standard of how conflicts are systematically defined and studied.
• World Development Indicators (World Bank)
  World Development Indicators (WDI) is the primary World Bank collection of development indicators, compiled from officially recognized international sources. It presents the most current and accurate global development data available, and includes national, regional and global estimates.
• World Institute for Development Economics Research (WIDER)
  The UNU-WIDER World Income Inequality Database (WIID) collects and stores information on income inequality for developed, developing, and transition countries.