This dataset measures the presence and duration of experience with macro polities. It extends and replaces previous versions of the State Antiquity Index (originally created by Bockstette, Chanda and Putterman, 2002). The updated data extends the previous Statehist data into the years before 1 CE to the first states in Mesopotamia (in the fourth millennium BCE), along with filling in the years 1951 - 2000 CE that were left out of past versions of the Statehist data.
The construction of the index follows the principles developed by Bockstette et al. (2002). First, the duration of state existence is established for each territory defined by modern-day country borders. Second, this duration is divided into 50-year periods. For each half-century from the first period (state emergence) onwards, the authors assign scores to reflect three dimensions of state presence, based on the following questions: 1) Is there a government above the tribal level? 2) Is this government foreign or locally based? 3) How much of the territory of the modern country was ruled by this government?