Migrant Electoral Rights (MER) New Data from 165 Countries and Six Decades

Author(s): 

Sebastian Umpierrez de Reguero, Klaudia Wegschaider, and Rainer Bauböck

ISPS ID: 
isps25-67
Full citation: 
Umpierrez de Reguero, S., Wegschaider, K. & Bauböck, R. Migrant Electoral Rights (MER) New Data from 165 Countries and Six Decades. Sci Data 12, 1864 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-025-06135-w
Abstract: 
Suffrage is a central element of democracy. Over time, electoral rights have increasingly become available to migrants—both as non-citizen residents (NCs) and as non-resident citizens (NRs). However, existing datasets either focus on only one of those categories, exclude candidacy rights, or have limited temporal and geographic scope. This article introduces the GLOBALCIT Dataset of Migrant Electoral Rights (MER), the most comprehensive dataset on migrant suffrage to date. MER covers voting and candidacy rights for both NCs and NRs. The coding differentiates between different types (legislative, executive, referendum) and levels (local, regional, national) of elections, as well as a range of eligibility, access, and modality conditions attached to these rights. Overall, the dataset contains up to 488 indicators across 165 countries from 1960 to 2020. By offering unparalleled data coverage and transparent documentation, MER facilitates the study of global trends in the political inclusion and exclusion of migrants, thus contributing to comparative political science, migration studies, and electoral policy analysis.
Supplemental information: 

Full article.

Related data: 

The GLOBALCIT Dataset of Migrant Electoral Rights (MER), hosted at the CADMUS repository of the European University Institute, is publicly accessible32. The dataset is provided in.CSV format. It is structured as a longitudinal country-year dataset, spanning 61 years (1960–2020) and includes data on electoral rights for NCs and NRs across 165 countries.

Dataset accessibility

MER is publicly accessible and open access, accompanied by a detailed Codebook as well as documentation in the form of a Factbook. Researchers are encouraged to use, critique, and build upon this resource.

The dataset consists of three files:

  1. 1.

    MER Main.csv – The primary dataset containing country-year observations with variables on migrant electoral rights.

  2. 2.

    MER Codebook.pdf – A Codebook detailing variable definitions and coding rules.

  3. 3.

    MER Factbook.pdf – A Factbook detailing relevant information and sources for each country in the sample.

Each observation in the main dataset is uniquely identified by country-year and includes binary, categorical, ordinal and continuous variables indicating the presence or absence of migrant voting and candidacy rights as well as additional variables capturing eligibility, access and modality conditions. Missing or ambiguous cases are handled according to the dataset’s coding guidelines.

The dataset follows FAIR principles, ensuring it is Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable, with a clear versioning system for updates. Users are encouraged to cite the dataset as follows: UMPIERREZ DE REGUERO, Sebastián, WEGSCHAIDER, Klaudia, BAUBÖCK, Rainer, MER Migrant Electoral Rights Dataset, EUI, RSC, Research Data, 2025 [https://cadmus.eui.eu/server/api/core/bitstreams/aa629006-6854-4f30-83e8-4e1db1aa241a/content].

Publication date: 
2025
Publication type: 
Peer Reviewed Article
Publication name: 
Scientific Data
Discipline: 
Political Science
Area of study: 
Immigration
International Affairs
Political Behavior