Crowd Counting Consortium Dataset

This repository is home to a compiled and augmented version of the Crowd Counting Consortium's data on political protest events in the United States. We use a broad definition of "protest," so the dataset includes protests, rallies, demonstrations, marches, strikes, and similar actions.

• The latest version of the full dataset is stored in csv format in this repository in two separate files, one covering the period 2017-2020 and the other covering the period 2021-present. The two files have identical column names and formates and can be merged into a single, large file covering the project's entire scope if desired. The easiest way to access them is to read them directly into your statistical software. If you prefer to download them to a local directory, though, you'll need to:

  1. Open this page in your browser;
  2. Right-click on the "View raw" linkin the center of the lower tile; and
  3. Choose a name and local destination for the file.

• The data dictionary describes the columns in that file.

• The coding guidelines describe the processes we use to find and encode information about relevant events.

If you use these data, please cite "Crowd Counting Consortium" as the source.

If you have questions about the dataset, please email Jay Ulfelder, Ph.D., at julfelder@hks.harvard.edu.

General Information

We strive to update this data set weekly, on Wednesdays not later than 4 PM Eastern time, with exceptions around holidays and ends of months. Please note that, while the raw data are updated on a rolling basis, there is some lag between the appearance of a news story or social-media post about an event (or the submission of a form to CCC) and the addition of a complete record to CCC's Google Sheets. CCC strives to keep that interval as short as possible, but the project operates on a shoestring budget, so periods of higher protest activity can make for longer delays.

The compiled data set serves as the input to the Crowd Counting Consortium (CCC) Data Dashboard, which interactively maps the events and plots summaries of them. Both the dashboard and the compiled data set are maintained by the Nonviolent Action Lab, a research program within the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School. The Crowd Counting Consortium is co-directed by faculty at Harvard University and the University of Connecticut.

The CCC collects these data in the public interest and to further scholarly research. The CCC is not formally affiliated with any other efforts to collect data on demonstrations, though it collaborated with Count Love from 2017 until early 2021. Anyone who wishes to conduct research using the data is fully responsible for any necessary contact with their own Institutional Review Boards.

We recognize that no large-scale data set on political crowds will ever capture all relevant events with 100% accuracy. Even so, we aspire to make this record as complete and error-free as possible. If you see a record that you believe needs correcting, or if you are aware of a relevant event that is not included, please do not open an issue here to report it. Instead, please submit a record or correction via the (anonymous) Google Form on the original CCC website.

If you have suggestions on how to improve this repository or the compiled version of the data it hosts, please submit a ticket via the "Issues" button above (or just click here).

Academic Research Using CCC Data

Curious how these data are getting used? Here, in reverse chronological order, are peer-reviewed published studies that have used CCC's work. If you are aware of any published articles or monographs that cite the data that aren't listed here, please let us know.

• Amory Gethin and Vincent Pons. "Social Movements and Public Opinion in the United States." National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper No. 32342 (April 2024) link

• Neal Caren. "Right-Wing Protest in the United States, 2017 to 2022." Socius: Sociological Research for a Dynamic World (July 5, 2023). link

• Cassy Dorff, Grace Adcox, and Amanda Konet. "Data innovations on protests in the United States." Journal of Peace Research Vol. 60, No. 1 (2023): 172-189. link

• Daniel Karell, Andrew Linke, Edward C. Holland, and Edward Hendrickson. "Hard-Right Social Media and Civil Unrest." American Sociological Review Vol. 88, No. 2 (2023) link

• Jeremy Pressman, Erica Chenoweth, Tommy Leung, L. Nathan Perkins, and Jay Ulfelder. "Protests Under Trump, 2017-2021." Mobilization Vol. 27, No. 1 (2022): 13-26. link

• Yuko Sato and Jake Haselswerdt. "Protest and state policy agendas: Marches and gun policy after Parkland." Policy Studies Journal Vol. 50, No. 4 (2022): 877-895. link

• Joan C. Timoneda and Erik Wibbels. "Spikes and Variance: Using Google Trends to Detect and Forecast Protests." Political Analysis Vol. 30, No. 1 (2022): 1-18. link

• Peter J. Phillips and Gabriela Pohl. "Crowd counting: a behavioural economics perspective." Quality & Quantity (2021): 1-18. link

• Jeremy Pressman and Austin Choi-Fitzpatrick. "Covid19 and protest repertoires in the United States: an initial description of limited change," Social Movement Studies Vol. 20, No. 6 (2021): 766-773. link

• Anton M. Sobolev, Keith Chen, Jungseock Joo, and Zachary C. Steinert-Threlkeld. "News and Geolocated Social Media Accurately Measure Protest Size Variation." American Political Science Review Vol. 114, no. 4 (2020): 1343-51. link

• Nicholas S. Miras. "Polls and Elections: Resistance Is Not Futile: Anti-Trump Protest and Senators' Opposition to President Trump in the 115th Congress." Presidential Studies Quarterly Vol. 49, no. 4 (2019): 932-958. link

• Kenneth T. Andrews, Neal Caren, and Alyssa Browne. "Protesting Trump." Mobilization Vol. 23, no. 4 (2018): 393-400. link

And here are some working papers we've seen that use the dataset. Again, please let us know if you're aware of others that should be listed.

• Larreboure, Magdalena and Felipe González, "The Impact of the Women's March on the U.S. House Election" (November 22, 2021) link

• Ebbinghaus, Mathis, Nathan Bailey, and Jacob Rubel. "Defended or defunded? Local and state policy outcomes of the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests." (November 19, 2021) link

Journalism Using CCC Data

Journalists also use CCC data, often to document trends or provide context in stories on specific events. Here are some examples.

• "Riot police and over 2,000 arrests: a look at 2 weeks of campus protests", The Washington Post (May 3, 2024) link

• "Wo US-Studierende für Palästina demonstrieren", Zeit Online (April 26, 2024) link

• "The growing pro-Palestinian movement, visualized", The Wall Street Journal (April 24, 2024) link

• "The new movement for Palestine", Hadas Thier, Hammer & Hope (Spring 2024) link

• "Some young Black voters undecided about Biden over lack of support for Palestinians", USA Today (December 17, 2023) link

• "Tens of thousands have joined pro-Palestinian protests across the United States. Experts say they are growing", PBS News Hour (December 15, 2023) link

• "'Largest pro-Palestinian Mobilization in U.S. History' | More Than 1 Million Americans Participated in Protests Since Hamas-Israel War Began on Oct 7" Haaretz (December 5, 2023) link

• "Pro-Palestinian marches are far more frequent than pro-Israeli ones. How U.S. reaction to the Israel-Hamas war has changed", Los Angeles Times (November 21, 2023) link

• "Protesters say they wanted Congress's attention. Police saw a threat", Washington Post (November 16, 2023) link

• "Will protests over the Israel-Hamas war shift U.S. policy?", Good Authority (October 27, 2023) link

• "LGBTQ community celebrates pride in the face of online and offline attacks", Reuters (June 11, 2023) link

• "Montgomery police to patrol Drag Story Hours after Proud Boys protest", Washington Post (February 21, 2023) link

• "Drag Story Hour protest in NYC caps a year of anti-drag attacks", NBC Out (December 30, 2022) link

• "2021 was supposed to be the 'worst year' for LGBTQ rights - then came 2022", NBC Out (December 29, 2022) link

• "Mass Shooting at Gay Nightclub in Colorado Follows Surge of Right-Wing Rhetoric and Threats Targeting LGBTQ Community", The Americano (November 22, 2022) link

• "Hateful rhetoric, demonstrations targeting LGBTQ+ community on the rise, experts say", WWMT.com (November 21, 2022) link

• "Clear spike in anti-trans rhetoric sets stage for violence like Colorado Springs shooting, experts say", The Colorado Sun (November 20, 2022) link

• "Club Q shooting follows year of bomb threats, drag protests, anti-trans bills", The Washington Post (November 20, 2022) link

• "Where Is the Anti-Biden Tea Party?", The New York Times (August 24, 2021) link

• "BLM and Floyd protests were largely peaceful, data confirms", Christian Science Monitor (July 8, 2021) link

• "Protests for Black lives are still happening", Vox (July 16, 2020) link

• "Black Lives Matter may be the largest movement in U.S. history", The New York Times (July 3, 2020) link

• "Maps: How Protests Evolved in the Wake of George Floyd's Killing", The Wall Street Journal (June 12, 2020) link

CCC Blog

We occasionally publish short pieces of analysis and data visualization on our project blog, which you can find here.