The data was used for the article Ethnic and Cultural Diversity by Country, published by Journal of Economic Growth. It containing data on 822 ethnic groups in 160 countries, that made up at least 1 percent of the country's population in the early 1990s. This data was last originally updated in 2003. For this compilation, QoG Data imputes the values from 2003 into 2021.
Last updated by source: 2003-06-02
| Dataset type: | Time-Series |
| Dataset level: | Country |
(Fearon, 2003)
This measure modifies fractionalization (fe_etfra) so as to take some account of cultural distances between groups, measured as the structural distance between languages spoken by different groups in a country. If the groups in a country speak structurally unrelated languages, their cultural diversity index will be the same as their level of ethnic fractionalization (fe_etfra). The more similar are the languages spoken by different ethnic groups, however, the more will this measure be reduced below the level of ethnic fractionalization for that country. The values are assumed to be constant for all years.
More about this variableRestricting attention to groups that had at least 1 percent of country population in the 1990s, Fearon identifies 822 ethnic and "ethnoreligious'' groups in 160 countries. This variable reflects the probability that two randomly selected people from a given country will belong to different such groups. The variable thus ranges from 0 (perfectly homogeneous) to 1 (highly fragmented). The values are assumed to be constant for all years.
More about this variableBased on the same set of groups, this variable reflects the population share of the second largest group (largest minority). The values are assumed to be constant for all years.
More about this variableBased on the same set of groups, this variable reflects the population share of the largest group (plurality group) in the country. The values are assumed to be constant for all years.
More about this variable