This project is a collaborative effort with Clayton Thyne to document successful and failed coups throughout the world. The initial data project, published in Journal of Peace Research, covered 1950-2009. We have continued to provide regular updates to the data.
This project defines coups as “illegal and overt attempts by the military or other elites within the state apparatus to unseat the sitting executive.” Successes are treated as episodes in which the perpetrators (or their agents) control power for at least 7 days.
All data on this page are updated regularly. I strongly encourage anyone with comments, questions, or concerns with the data to contact Jonathan Powell or Clayton Thyne.
How to cite:
Powell, Jonathan & Clayton Thyne. 2011. Global Instances of Coups from 1950-Present. Journal of Peace Research 48(2):249-259.
If citing the data as a link, please use the original Journal of Peace Research page.
Access the Data:
List of coups by country (txt). 2=Successful Coup; 1=Failed Coup
Stata: insheet using http://www.uky.edu/~clthyn2/coup_data/powell_thyne_coups_final.txt, clear
List of coups by country(ccode)-year (txt). Stata: insheet using http://www.uky.edu/~clthyn2/coup_data/powell_thyne_ccode_year.txt
Original candidate list (txt) *NOTE: This list does not include candidates considered since original publication in JPR.
Stata: insheet using http://www.uky.edu/~clthyn2/coup_data/candidate_dataset.txt
Codebook (pdf)
Our Data in the Media
