The CORESIDENCE Database: National and Subnational Data on Household and Living Arrangements Around the World, 1964-2021

Households are the fundamental units of co-residence and play a crucial role in social and economic reproduction worldwide. They are also widely used as units of enumeration for data collection purposes, with substantive implications for research on poverty, living conditions, family structure, and gender dynamics. However, reliable comparative data on households and changes and living arrangements around the world is still under development. The CORESIDENCE database (CoDB) aims to bridge the existing data gap by offering valuable insights not only into the documented disparities between countries but also into the often-elusive regional differences within countries. By providing comprehensive data, it facilitates a deeper understanding of the complex dynamics of co-residence around the world. This database is a significant contribution to research, as it sheds light on both macro-level variations across nations and micro-level variations within specific regions, facilitating more nuanced analyses and evidence-based policymaking.

The CoDB is composed of three datasets covering 155 countries (National Dataset), 3563 regions (Subnational Dataset), and 1511 harmonized regions (Subnational-Harmonized Dataset) for the period 1960 to 2021, and it provides 146 indicators on household composition and family arrangements across the world. 

This repository is composed of the following elements: a RData file named CORESIDENDE_DATABASE containing the CoDB in the form of a List. 

The CORESIDENDE_DB list object is composed of six elements:

1. NATIONAL: a data frame with the household composition and living arrangements indicators at the national level.
2. SUBNATIONAL: a data frame with the household composition and living arrangements indicators at the subnational level computed over the original subnational division provided in each sample and data source.
3. SUBNATIONAL_HARMONIZED: a data frame with the household composition and living arrangements indicators computed over the harmonized subnational regions.
4. SUBNATIONAL_BOUNDARIES_CORESIDENCE: a spatial data frame (a sf object) with the boundary’s delimitation of the subnational harmonized regions created for this project.
5. CODEBOOK: a data frame with the complete list of indicators, their code names and description.
6. HARMONIZATION_TABLE: a data frame with the full list of individual country-year samples employed in this project and their state of inclusion in the 3 datasets composing the CoDB.

Elements 1, 2, 3, 5 and 6 of the R list are also provided as csv files under the same names. Element 4, the harmonized boundaries, is at disposal as gpkg (Geopackage) file.

Articles published by the CORESIDENCE team

2024, Scientific Data, CORESIDENCE: National and subnational data on household size and composition around the world, 1964–2021

2024, Genus, A global perspective on household size and composition, 1970–2020

2024, Population and Development Review, Trends in Living Arrangements Around the World