V-Dem Dataset - Version 9

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.

V9 Overview:

• Countries: 202 countries
• Year coverage: 1789-2018
• 450+ V-Dem indicators, 81 indices and 5 high-level indices

How to download a V-Dem Dataset:

1. Select type of dataset: Country-Year, Country-Date and Coder-Level
2. Select size: V-Dem Core, V-Dem Full+Others
3. Select format: SPSS, STATA, CSV and R
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 V9
• What's New
• Cautionary Notes
• Suggested Citation

Note:

6 May 2019: we uploaded slightly updated dataset packages. The difference concerns some tags and Codebook entries. For details, please consult the change log file  changelog.txt (447 bytes) .

3 June 2019: we uploaded slightly updated versions of the country-year full+others dataset packages. The difference concerns only two variables on GDP growth (e_migdpgro and e_migdpgrolns).

 

Dataset	Download
Country-Year: V-Dem Core The five high-level V-Dem Democracy Indices, 81 indices, and the indicators constituting them.	SPSS STATA CSV R
Country-Year: V-Dem Full+Others All 450+ V-Dem indicators and indices + 59 other indicators from other data sources.	SPSS STATA CSV R
Country-Date: V-Dem All 450+ V-Dem indicators and indices	SPSS STATA CSV R
Coder-Level: V-Dem Data coded by Country Experts and coder-reliability scores from the Measurement Model output	CSV

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 Startquide.pdf (1.2 MB)

What's New and Cautionary Note:

We encourage you to read the  What's New.pdf (144.1 KB)  and  V-Dem Cautionary Notes v9.pdf (93.8 KB) .

These notes are also included in the dataset packages.

Tips:

• CSV: 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.
• STATA-IC: Example to select individual variables from a large dataset: use country_name v2x_polyarchy using V-Dem-CY-Full+Others-v9.dta

Citation:

Coppedge, Michael, John Gerring, Carl Henrik Knutsen, Staffan I. Lindberg, Jan Teorell, David Altman, Michael Bernhard, M. Steven Fish, Adam Glynn, Allen Hicken, Anna Lührmann, Kyle L. Marquardt, Kelly McMann, Pamela Paxton, Daniel Pemstein, Brigitte Seim, Rachel Sigman, Svend-Erik Skaaning, Jeffrey Staton, Steven Wilson, Agnes Cornell, Lisa Gastaldi, Haakon Gjerløw, Nina Ilchenko, Joshua Krusell, Laura Maxwell, Valeriya Mechkova, Juraj Medzihorsky, Josefine Pernes, Johannes von Römer, Natalia Stepanova, Aksel Sundström, Eitan Tzelgov, Yi-ting Wang, Tore Wig, and Daniel Ziblatt. 2019. "V-Dem [Country-Year/Country-Date] Dataset v9", Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) Project. https://doi.org/10.23696/vdemcy19

& 

Pemstein, Daniel, Kyle L. Marquardt, Eitan Tzelgov, Yi-ting Wang, Juraj Medzihorsky, Joshua Krusell, Farhad Miri, and Johannes von Römer. 2019. “The V-Dem Measurement Model: Latent Variable Analysis for Cross-National and Cross-Temporal Expert-Coded Data”, V-Dem Working Paper No. 21. 4th edition. University of Gothenburg: Varieties of Democracy Institute.

License:

The V-Dem datasets are available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License  CC-BY-SA-license.txt (19.7 KB) .

Publications:

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

Working Papers Submissions:

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

Posteriors:

Will be available shortly.