V-Dem Dataset - Version 8

This version of V-Dem data predates the most recent version. We are posting it in the interest of transparency because it may be needed to replicate analyses that used it. However, we want users to be aware that the coverage of countries and years varies across versions and that we continually make improvements to the measurement model and other aspects of the data collection process. Most scores have changed slightly since this version, and some may have changed very noticeably. Unless you are replicating older work or doing specialized research on the evolution of our data collection process, we strongly recommend using the most recent version of data, which you can download from the v-dem.net website.

Overview:

• Countries: 201 countries
• Year coverage: 1789-2017
• 450 V-Dem indicators, 47 mid-indices and 5 high-level indices

How to download a V-Dem Dataset:

1. Select type of dataset: Country-Year or Country-Date
2. Select size: V-Dem Core, V-Dem, or V-Dem Extended
3. Select format: SPSS, STATA, STATA-IC, CSV or EXCEL
4. Click on the link to download the file and enter your details in the pop-up window
5. The dataset and documentation are all yours!

Each ZIP includes:

• Dataset
• Codebook V8
• What's New
• Cautionary Notes
• Suggested Citation

 

Dataset	Download
Country-Year: V-Dem Core The five V-Dem Democracy Indices and the indicators constituting them.	SPSS STATA CSV EXCEL
Country-Year: V-Dem All 350+ V-Dem indicators and indices  STATA-IC version excludes HPD intervals for the ordinal scale and standard deviation for the relative and original scale of the Measurement Model output.	SPSS STATA STATA-IC CSV EXCEL
Country-Year: V-Dem Extended All 350+ V-Dem indicators and indices + over 300 other indicators from other data sources.	SPSS (temporarily unavailable) STATA CSV EXCEL
Country-Date: V-Dem All 350+ V-Dem indicators and indices STATA-IC version excludes HPD intervals for the ordinal scale and standard deviation for the relative and original scale of the Measurement Model output.	SPSS STATA STATA-IC CSV EXCEL

Quickstart Guide

This quickstart guide is largely an extraction of text from the codebook, but is compiled as a means for a first quick look at the V-dem dataset. For reference, detailed explanations, cautionary notes, and information on all variables, please view the codebook and our other reference documents. Access the guide here:  V-Dem Startguide.pdf (1.3 MB)

What's New and Cautionary Note:

We encourage you to read the What's_new_v8.pdf (177.8 KB) and Cautionary_notes_v8.pdf (177.6 KB) .

The note is also included in the dataset packages.

Tips for csv files:

When loading the csv file into a statistical software one must specify the encoding as UTF-8 and the delimiter as comma. In Microsoft Excel 2016 that would work the following way: Data -> Get External Data -> From Text; Choose the csv file, this opens the Text Import Wizard; Specify 'Delimited' and choose '65001: Unicode (UTF-8)' as File origin.

Citation:

Coppedge, Michael, John Gerring, Carl Henrik Knutsen, Staffan I. Lindberg, Svend-Erik Skaaning, Jan Teorell, David Altman, Michael Bernhard, M. Steven Fish, Agnes Cornell, Sirianne Dahlum, Haakon Gjerløw, Adam Glynn, Allen Hicken, Joshua Krusell, Anna Lührmann, Kyle L. Marquardt, Kelly McMann, Valeriya Mechkova, Juraj Medzihorsky, Moa Olin, Pamela Paxton, Daniel Pemstein, Josefine Pernes, Johannes von Römer, Brigitte Seim, Rachel Sigman, Jeffrey Staton, Natalia Stepanova, Aksel Sundström, Eitan Tzelgov, Yi-ting Wang, Tore Wig, Steven Wilson, and Daniel Ziblatt. 2018. "V-Dem [Country-Year/Country-Date] Dataset v8". Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) Project. https://doi.org/10.23696/vdemcy18

& 

Pemstein, Daniel, Kyle L. Marquardt, Eitan Tzelgov, Yi-ting Wang, Joshua Krusell and Farhad Miri. 2018. “The V-Dem Measurement Model: Latent Variable Analysis for Cross-National and Cross-Temporal Expert-Coded Data”. University of Gothenburg, Varieties of Democracy Institute: Working Paper No. 21, 3d edition.

Publications:

Please notify us about any publications that result from the use of V-Dem data by sending your bibliographic citation to contact@v-dem.net and including information on your publication.

Working Papers Submissions:

We encourage users of V-Dem data to submit papers to be published by the V-Dem Institute in the "V-Dem Data Users Working Paper Series", more information is available here. 

Disaggregated Dataset & Posteriors:

Will be available shortly.