The Indices of Social Development (ISD) database is an ISS database providing six indices with data for every five years from 1990 up 2015 for virtually every country of the world. The ISD website has been completely revised and is now part of the ISS environment.
The indices can be used for cross-country quantitative analysis at global level or regional level (f.e. Europe or Africa). For every country, data is available for 6 points in time, so you can build a relatively large sample.
The six indices measured are:
- Civic Activism, measuring use of media and protest behaviour
- Clubs and Associations, defined as membership in local voluntary associations
- Intergroup Cohesion, which measures ethnic and sectarian tensions, and discrimination
- Interpersonal Safety and Trust, focusing on perceptions and incidences of crime and personal transgressions
- Gender Equality, reflecting gender discrimination in home, work and public life
- Inclusion of Minorities, measures levels of discrimination against vulnerable groups
Are minorities included less over time in countries with populist regimes?
But the indices can also be used for descriptive statistics and visualizations. For example to show trends over time in social development (eg. gender equality or social cohesion).
The database facilitates finding answers to a wide number of research questions such as:
- Are minorities included less over time in countries with populist regimes?
- Is the COVID-19 epidemic less severe in countries with more interpersonal safety and trust?
The new website is more user-friendly, updated, and has very fast links to relevant information. The data can be downloaded very easily and comes in two formats: CSV and Excel.
The output can be tailor-made to include one or more of the six indices, any year and any country, but also all indicators that make up each index. Hence, it is fully transparent.
The 2020 data will be available mid-2021.
Feedback and contact
- Email address
- staveren@iss.nl
Your feedback is welcome through the web form or you can contact the database director, Professor Irene van Staveren
