The original Information Capacity Dataset offers numerical data on five institutions and policies that modern states use to collect information about their populations and territories: (1) the regular implementation of a reliable census, (2) the regular release of statistical yearbooks, the operation of (3) civil and (4) population registers, and (5) the establishment of a government agency tasked with processing statistical information. Based on these five indicators, an overall index of “information capacity” is calculated for 85 polities from 1750 to 2015.