In security governance research, data sources and indexes are particularly valuable because they translate complex, multidimensional security realities into comparable data, making it easier to identify cross-national variation, trace long-term trajectories, and benchmark states against regional or global patterns. Despite their limitations (Mac Ginty 2013; Džuverović 2023), a key strength of indexes lies in their ability to combine objective measures (e.g. military expenditure, recorded terrorist incidents, homicide rates) with perception-based and governance-oriented indicators, including public feelings of safety, trust in institutions, political stability, and the resilience of state structures. Rather than focusing solely on whether big or discrete events, they help uncover structural trends by revealling whether violence is intensifying or declining, whether defence spending aligns with perceived threats, whether crime and migration pressures are linked to governance gaps, or whether weak institutions are themselves generating insecurity.
This combination is especially valuable for research on security governance, where the core concern extends beyond the mere existence of threats to the effectiveness, legitimacy, and accountability of institutional responses to them. By allowing comparison of how states respond to similar security pressures, assessing the resilience of governance structures under external influence, and situating regional security dynamics within broader patterns of great-power behaviour and contested spheres of influence, indexes become indispensable tools for scholars, policymakers, and civil society actors. The list below, hence, offers a quick-reference overview of the principal data sources and indexes most relevant to security governance, providing an analytical entry point for examining how states and societies manage challenges such as conflict, terrorism, organised crime, irregular migration, militarisation, and arms proliferation.
Developed by Uppsala University, this is one of the most authoritative global datasets on armed conflict, battle-related deaths, one-sided violence, and other forms of organised violence. It is especially useful for tracking conflict onset, escalation, and actor dynamics across time and space.
Published annually by the Institute for Economics & Peace, this broad composite index captures societal safety, levels of conflict, and militarisation, allowing comparison of the wider security environment across countries and over time.
Produced by the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data team, this highly granular event-level dataset tracks political violence, protests, riots, state repression, and conflict events, and is updated in near real time. Its geocoded structure makes it particularly valuable for subnational and regional security governance analysis.
Published by the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START), the Global Terrorism Database is an open-source database including information on terrorist events around the world from 1970 through 2020. For each GTD incident, information is available on the date and location of the incident, the weapons used and nature of the target, the number of casualties, and, when identifiable, the group or individual responsible.
Published by the Institute for Economics & Peace and drawing extensively on terrorism incident data from the Global Terrorism Database, this comparative index measures the impact of terrorism across countries, including frequency, lethality, and geographic spread. It is useful for understanding how terrorism shapes national security priorities and governance responses.
Developed by the Political Terror Scale Project using reports from Amnesty International and the US Department of State, this widely used comparative indicator captures state repression, politically motivated violence, and human rights abuses, helping researchers assess coercive governance practices and the relationship between security institutions and civil liberties.
Published by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, this foundational international dataset covers homicide, trafficking, drug markets, organised crime, and criminal justice systems. It provides both objective crime statistics and governance-relevant indicators of law enforcement performance.
Produced by the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, this is a major comparative source for analysing criminal markets, criminal actors, resilience, and law-enforcement capacity. It is particularly important for research on corruption, trafficking, border governance, and state capture.
Published by the World Bank, this broad structural dataset covers development, governance, inequality, demographics, public spending, and institutional performance. Within security governance research, it is especially useful for contextualising violence, crime, and fragility within wider socioeconomic conditions.
Developed by the INFORM Initiative, a global informal partnership guided by a Steering Group of founding organisations, this multidimensional risk dataset measures crisis exposure, vulnerability, and institutional coping capacity. It is especially useful for connecting security governance to humanitarian risk and resilience dimensions.
