Data

The Child Benefit dataset (CBD) covers various forms of child benefit programs, including universal and employment related child benefits, income-related child allowances, child tax rebates on social security contributions, child tax allowances and child tax credits for 36 countries 1960-2020. Focus is on the level of benefits, expressed in absolute amounts and as percentages of average wages.

The Child Care dataset (CCD) is a new SPIN module based on questionnaires sent to government agencies in EU Member states and Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Norway, Switzerland and the United States. It covers three core dimensions of child care: coverage, financing and levels of provision.

This dataset is still under construction and will be available for download once it is completed. For further information, please contact spin@sofi.su.se

The Housing Benefits dataset (HBEN) is part of the SPIN database at the Swedish Institute for Social Research (Stockholm University). It is an ongoing research project with the aim to improve the possibilities to conduct large-scale institutionally informed comparative and longitudinal analyses of social policy in general and of housing benefits in particular. The current version of HBEN includes detailed information about the generosity of means-tested benefits in 39 countries on an annual basis from 2001 to 2020.

The Out-of-Work Benefits dataset (OUTWB) covers various types of out-of-work benefits in a large number of countries. Variables in the dataset are calculated based on information provided by the OECD (Benefit and Wages project), http://www.oecd.org/els/soc/benefits-and-wages.htm.The dataset does not only include net replacement rates across a great number of earnings-levels, but includes also various measures capturing the progressivity of income replacement. Besides unemployment insurance, the various benefits packages in the dataset include information on unemployment assistance, social assistance, child benefits, fiscal benefits and housing allowances. In the current version, the dataset includes 39 countries covering the years 2001-2021.

The Parental Leave Benefit dataset (PLB) is a data module of SPIN that establishes indicators on parental leave benefits and related family policy programs. The purpose of PLB is to improve possibilities for systematic, comparative and longitudinal institutional analyses of the causes and consequences of family policy development.

The first version of the PLB dataset contained information about earnings-related parental leave insurance benefits in 18 countries 1950 to 2010. This update of PLB expands the previous version. It contains information on different types of parental leave benefits in 36 countries up to 2020, collected within five-year intervals. For previous versions of the PLB dataset, please contact the SPIN-team.

The Social Assistance and Minimum Income Protection Interim dataset (SAMIP) includes detailed information on the benefit position of low-income households in industrialized welfare democracies. In the current version SaMip includes 34 countries and observations are for every year 1990-2019. The variables in the dataset are based on a type-case approach, where benefit levels have been calculated for three typical households; a single person, a lone parent, and a two parent family.

SAMIP 241024 (2001 Kb)

SAMIP Documentation 210219 pdf, 392.1 kB. (392 Kb)

Updated: 2024-10-24 (revised codebook will soon be available)

The Social Citizenship Indicator Program (SCIP) covers institutional structures of core social insurance programs. Detailed information are provided on citizens’ rights and duties based on legislation related to five major programs, including old age pensions and benefits in cases of sickness, unemployment and work accidents. SCIP includes 18 affluent countries with uninterrupted political democracy during the postwar period. Information refers to fourteen time points: 1930, 1933, 1939, 1947, 1950, and thereafter every fifth year up to 2005.

Read this: The SCIP dataset is discontinued and the last update was in October 2013. Updates to core SCIP variables are published in the Social Insurance Entitlements Dataset (SIED).

SCIP 131017 (399 Kb)

SCIP Codebook pdf, 141.3 kB. (141 Kb)

Final update: 2013-10-17

The Social Insurance Entitlements Dataset (SIED) is a continuation of the SCIP project with an extended geographical and temporal focus. The latest update of SIED covers annual data for 37 countries from 2000 to 2023, instead of five-year intervals for 18 countries as in SCIP. SIED covers the same social insurance programs as SCIP and also uses the same variable names. Earlier versions of SIED cover five-year intervals from 1930–2020 and can be downloaded as well. Future planned updates of SIED will always include annual data up to the most recent year. They will also go back even further to the 1960s.

Annual data:

SIED 2000-2023 (2025-02)(892 Kb)

SIED 2000–2023 Codebook pdf, 729.4 kB. (729 Kb)

Updated: 2025-02-11

Data with 5-year intervals

SIED 1930–2020 (2023-06)(451 Kb)

SIED - Changes to pre-2015 coding (30 Kb)

Updated: 2023-06-21

The Social Policy in East Asia dataset (SPEAD) is a new SPIN module that is developed at SOFI, initially covering social insurance programs in e.g. Indonesia, Korea (republic), Philippines, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam. The dataset will eventually be extended in scope and include also social assistance and family benefits, plus additional low- and mid-income countries across the globe.

This dataset is under construction and will be available for download once it is completed. For further information, please contact spin@sofi.su.se

The Student Support and Fees Dataset (SSFD) aims to enhance the capacity for large-scale, institutionally informed comparative and longitudinal analyses of student finance systems in general, and of students’ rights to financial aid and their obligations to pay tuition fees in particular. The dataset is based on calculated levels of support and fees for three model families, with a focus on the social rights and obligations of full-time undergraduate students from these families.
The current version of the SSFD covers 33 high-income countries for the years 2005, 2010, 2015, 2020, and 2022. The ongoing SSFD data collection is a part of a broader research agenda that seeks to understand the causes and consequences of student finance systems in affluent countries.

Project leader and contact person: Krzysztof Czarnecki, Swedish Institute for Social Research.

Citation in publications using the SSFD dataset:
Czarnecki, K., Korpi, T., Nelson, K., 2021. Student support and tuition fee systems in comparative perspective. Studies in Higher Education 46, 2152–2166. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2020.1716316

SSFD data file (version November 2025) xlsx, 174.5 kB.

SSFD Documentation (version November 2025) pdf, 327.9 kB.

Updated: 2026-01-28