Data and Statistics

After a period of trials the Conflict Data Project was properly established at the Department by the mid-1980s. It continuously collects data on armed conflicts. The definitions have gradually been refined primarily to fit scholarly requirements of global comparability. The definitions are designed so as to pick up the same phenomenon across time as well as across space. This makes the data useful for systematic studies of the origins of conflict, conflict dynamics and conflict resolution.

CIRI currently includes measures of the practices of governments that allow or impede citizens who wish to exercise their:

* Physical integrity rights--the rights not to be tortured, summarily executed, disappeared, or imprisoned for political beliefs. The scores of these variables can be summed to form a statistically valid cumulative scale (Cingranelli and Richards, 1999; Richards, Gelleny, and Sacko, 2001). Please see our bibliography page for full references.
* Civil liberties such as free speech, freedom of association and assembly, freedom of movement, freedom of religion, and the right to participate in the selection of government leaders. The scores of some of these variables can be summed to form a statistically valid cumulative scale (Richards, Gelleny, and Sacko, 2001).
* Workers’ rights
* Rights of women to equal treatment politically, economically, and socially.

The International Comparison Program (ICP) is the world's largest statistical initiative. It produces internationally comparable price levels, economic aggregates in real terms, and Purchasing Power Partity estimates. The ICP uses a series of statistical surveys to collect price data for a basket of goods and services. For meaningful inter-country comparisons, the ICP considers the affordability and price level of necessities and luxuries, which exchange rates ignore.



Surveys are held every three to five years, depending on the region. The data collected are combined with other economic variables from countries’ national accounts to calculate Purchasing Power Parities or PPPs, a form of exchange rate that takes into account the cost and affordability of common items in different countries, usually expressed in the form of US dollars.

Commodity Trade Statistics
Energy Statistics
FAO Data
Gender Info 2007
Greenhouse Gas Inventory Data
Human Development Report
ILO Data
Indicators on women and men
Industrial Commodity Statistics
Key Global Indicators
Millennium Development Goals
National Accounts Estimates of Main Aggregates
National Accounts Official Country Data
UNESCO Institute for Statistics
UNHCR Statistical Yearbook
The State of the World's Children
UNSD Demographic Statistics
WHO Data
World Population Prospects
World Telecommunication/ICT Indicators Database
World Statistics Pocketbook
World Tourism Organization Statistics

Also from the UNDP:

* The Human Poverty Index Human poverty is primarily a deprivation of choices and opportunities for living a life one has reason to value. Lack of income is therefore far too narrow to serve as a holistic poverty indicator. As a result, a broader measure was devised in order to capture the many—but not exhaustive—dimensions of human poverty.

*The Gender Related Development Index (GDI) is a composite index that measures human development in the same dimensions as the HDI while adjusting for gender inequality in those basic dimensions. Its coverage is limited to 136 countries and areas for which the HDI rank was recalculated.

*The Gender Empowerment Measure (GEM)is a composite indicator that captures gender inequality in three key areas: the extent of women's political participation and decision-making, economic participation and decision making-power and the power exerted by women over economic resources.

CIRI currently includes measures of the practices of governments that allow or impede citizens who wish to exercise their:

* Physical integrity rights--the rights not to be tortured, summarily executed, disappeared, or imprisoned for political beliefs. The scores of these variables can be summed to form a statistically valid cumulative scale (Cingranelli and Richards, 1999; Richards, Gelleny, and Sacko, 2001). Please see our bibliography page for full references.
* Civil liberties such as free speech, freedom of association and assembly, freedom of movement, freedom of religion, and the right to participate in the selection of government leaders. The scores of some of these variables can be summed to form a statistically valid cumulative scale (Richards, Gelleny, and Sacko, 2001).
* Workers’ rights
* Rights of women to equal treatment politically, economically, and socially.

Indicators include:

Voice and Accountability
Political Stability and Absence of Violence
Government Effectiveness
Regulatory Quality
Rule of Law
Control of Corruption