What you should know about this indicator
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Sources and processing
This data is based on the following sources
How we process data at Our World in Data
All data and visualizations on Our World in Data rely on data sourced from one or several original data providers. Preparing this original data involves several processing steps. Depending on the data, this can include standardizing country names and world region definitions, converting units, calculating derived indicators such as per capita measures, as well as adding or adapting metadata such as the name or the description given to an indicator.
At the link below you can find a detailed description of the structure of our data pipeline, including links to all the code used to prepare data across Our World in Data.
Notes on our processing step for this indicator
Equivalent to V-Dem's v2exfemhos indicator, but it is modified to reflect the gender of the head of state by the end of the year, December 31. V-Dem, instead, seems to refer to other points during the year.
Affected by change are:
- Ali Ben Bongo Ondimba:
- 2009-2022 Gabon
- Chulalongkorn (Rama V):
- 1873-1909 Kingdom of Siam (Thailand)
- Dieudonné François Joseph Marie Reste:
- 1923-1925 Tchad [part of French Equatorial Africa]
- 1929-1930 French Dahomey [colony within French West Africa]
- 1932-1934 Ivory Coast [part of French West Africa]
- 1936-1938 Middle Congo as part of the French Equatorial Africa
- Letsie III:
- 1990-1994, 1996-2024 Lesotho
- Miguel I "o Rei Absoluto":
- 1828-1833 Portugal
- Moshoeshoe II:
- 1960-1965 British Protectorate of Basutoland (Lesotho)
- 1966-1989, 1995 Lesotho
- Prince Zaifeng:
- 1908-1911 China
- Rajkeswur Purryag:
- 2012-2014 Mauritius
- Shimon Peres:
- 2007-2013 Israel
Data imputation
Unlike most indicators in this dataset, this one is not extended back in time with the data of the historical entity a country was part of. Who led a country is a fact about that country rather than about the power that ruled its territory earlier, so the years before a country appears in V-Dem's data are left empty.
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Citations
How to cite this page
To cite this page overall, including any descriptions, FAQs or explanations of the data authored by Our World in Data, please use the following citation:
“Data Page: Gender of the head of state”, part of the following publication: Bastian Herre, Lucas Rodés-Guirao, and Esteban Ortiz-Ospina (2013) - “Democracy”. Data adapted from V-Dem. Retrieved from https://archive.ourworldindata.org/20261028-153211/grapher/gender-of-the-head-of-state.html [online resource] (archived on October 28, 2026).How to cite this data
In-line citationIf you have limited space (e.g. in data visualizations), you can use this abbreviated in-line citation:
V-Dem (2026) – processed by Our World in DataFull citation
V-Dem (2026) – processed by Our World in Data. “Gender of the head of state” [dataset]. V-Dem, “Democracy report v16” [original data]. Retrieved October 30, 2026 from https://archive.ourworldindata.org/20261028-153211/grapher/gender-of-the-head-of-state.html (archived on October 28, 2026).Download
Quick download
Download the data shown in this chart as a ZIP file containing a CSV file, metadata in JSON format, and a README. The CSV file can be opened in Excel, Google Sheets, and other data analysis tools.
Data API
Use these URLs to programmatically access this chart's data and configure your requests with the options below. Our documentation provides more information on how to use the API, and you can find a few code examples below.
Data URL (CSV format)
https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/gender-of-the-head-of-state.csv?v=1&csvType=full&useColumnShortNames=falseMetadata URL (JSON format)
https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/gender-of-the-head-of-state.metadata.json?v=1&csvType=full&useColumnShortNames=falseExcel / Google Sheets
=IMPORTDATA("https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/gender-of-the-head-of-state.csv?v=1&csvType=full&useColumnShortNames=false")Python with Pandas
import pandas as pd
import requests
# Fetch the data.
df = pd.read_csv("https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/gender-of-the-head-of-state.csv?v=1&csvType=full&useColumnShortNames=false", storage_options = {'User-Agent': 'Our World In Data data fetch/1.0'})
# Fetch the metadata
metadata = requests.get("https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/gender-of-the-head-of-state.metadata.json?v=1&csvType=full&useColumnShortNames=false").json()R
library(jsonlite)
# Fetch the data
df <- read.csv("https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/gender-of-the-head-of-state.csv?v=1&csvType=full&useColumnShortNames=false")
# Fetch the metadata
metadata <- fromJSON("https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/gender-of-the-head-of-state.metadata.json?v=1&csvType=full&useColumnShortNames=false")Stata
import delimited "https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/gender-of-the-head-of-state.csv?v=1&csvType=full&useColumnShortNames=false", encoding("utf-8") clear