About the Cross-National Time-Series Data Archive (CNTS)​ 

Two Centuries of Global Data. One Foundational Research Resource​​

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The Cross-National Time-Series Data Archive (CNTS) is one of the world’s most widely used longitudinal datasets for comparative social science research. Covering more than 200 countries from 1815 to the present, CNTS provides annual country-level data across 196 demographic, political, economic, legislative, and social variables.

For more than five decades, researchers, universities, governments, and institutions have relied on CNTS to study political instability, economic development, social change, conflict, governance, and historical trends across nations and over time.

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Why Researchers Use CNTS

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Historical Depth Across Two Centuries

CNTS offers continuous annual data spanning over 200 years, enabling researchers to analyze long-term historical patterns and structural change across nations and regions.

Coverage begins in 1815, following the Congress of Vienna and the emergence of the modern international system.
(Excludes the World War I and World War II periods: 1914–1918 and 1940–1945.)

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Unique Domestic Conflict Event Data

CNTS is especially renowned for its domestic conflict indicators — among the most cited and influential event datasets in political science and international relations.

The archive systematically records and counts major internal conflict events, including:

• Assassinations

• Riots

• Revolutions

• General strikes

• Government crises

• Purges

• Terrorism and guerrilla warfare

Beginning in 2011, CNTS also introduced optional LINKS files containing direct media-source links for domestic conflict events, allowing researchers to trace events back to contemporaneous reporting.

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Broad Multidisciplinary Coverage

CNTS includes variables spanning:

• GDP and government expenditures

• Military personnel and defense indicators

• Urbanization and infrastructure

• School enrollment and education statistics

• Media and communications presence

• Elections, legislatures, and political institutions

• Demographic and social indicators

Its breadth makes CNTS a foundational resource across political science, sociology, economics, demography, international relations, history, public policy, and data science.

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The History of CNTS

CNTS was established in 1968 at the State University of New York at Binghamton by political scientist Arthur S. Banks (1926–2011) under the University’s Center for Comparative Political Research, later known as the Center for Social Analysis.

Professor Banks served on the Binghamton University faculty from 1968 to 1996, including nearly a decade as department chair. His publications included A Cross-Polity Survey (with Robert B. Textor, 1963), and he served as senior editor of Political Handbook of the World from 1975 to 1997.

The original vision behind CNTS was ambitious: to create a machine-readable longitudinal archive of global political and social data at a time when such resources scarcely existed.

Early work drew heavily from The Statesman’s Yearbook, the long-running annual reference first published in 1864. However, concerns regarding the reliability of certain early historical figures led the project to expand into a much broader multi-source archival effort.

From the outset, the archive aimed to include all commonly recognized members of the international community and to provide data extending back to 1815. In 1977, additional coverage was added for smaller states such as Andorra, Liechtenstein, Monaco, and Vatican City.

In January 1971, 102 archive variables were published in the landmark volume Cross-Polity Time-Series Data.

Dr. Banks continued updating CNTS until his passing in 2011. Today, the archive continues to be maintained and expanded by Databanks International and collaborating researchers.

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Databanks International

Databanks International maintains, updates, licenses, and publishes the CNTS archive for libraries, universities, research centers, institutions, and independent researchers worldwide.

The organization also developed the CIA World Factbook Datasets, featuring a proprietary lookup system for archived World Factbook data following the retirement of the original online resource in February 2026.

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CNTS in Published Research

CNTS has been cited in hundreds of academic publications and has supported research published across political science, economics, sociology, demography, conflict studies, and international relations.

Selected publications and citations are available on the “CNTS in Publications” page.

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How to Cite CNTS

Banks, Arthur S., and Wilson, Kenneth A. 2026.
Cross-National Time-Series Data Archive (CNTS).
Databanks International. Jerusalem, Israel.
https://www.cntsdata.com/

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Access CNTS

CNTS is available for libraries, universities, research institutes, classes, and research groups.

Please visit the Orders/Licenses page for subscription and licensing information.

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What Researchers Say About CNTS

“It is a social science goldmine!”
— Dan Braha, New England Complex Systems Institute and University of Massachusetts

“Possibly the most widely used event dataset...”
— Henrik Urdal, Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO)

“Frequently cited, it is one of the leading datasets on political violence.”
— Robert Bates, Harvard University

“The data found here will be useful to researchers in political science, sociology, economics, business, education, history, and communications.”
— Choice Magazine, American Library Association

“Banks’s data have several key advantages over other available protest datasets.”
— Elena Slinko, Stanislav Bilyuga, Julia Zinkina, Andrey Korotayev

The MIT Technology Review Blog also included CNTS among “The 70 Online Databases that Define Our Planet.”