Physical factors
README for physical geography and population (physfact_rev.*)
This dataset was revised on August 31, 2001.
Variables in this data set: latitude and longitude of each country's centroid, mean elevation, mean
distance to nearest ice-free coastline, mean distance to nearest ice-free coastline or sea-navigable river,
distance from a country's centroid to nearest coastline, distance from a country's centroid to nearest
coastline or sea-navigable river, total population, percent of population within 100km of the coastline,
percent of the population within 100km of the nearest coastline or sea-navigable river, percent of land area
within 100km of the coastline, percent of land area within 100km of the nearest coastline or sea-navigable
river, percent of population in the geographic tropics, percent of population in the ecological tropics
(REMOVED), percent land area in the geographic tropics, and the typical population density an average
person experiences, by country.
Stata do file is a program (physfact_rev.do) written in Stata to load the data in physfact_rev.csv and
create the variable labels etc. in physfact_rev.dta. It can be used as a model to load the data into other
statistical packages besides Stata.
Stata data file is the Stata data set with the physical geography and population data by country
(physfact_rev.dta).
ASCII file is a comma separated value file (physfact_rev.csv) of the physical geography and population
data that can be opened as a spreadsheet in Excel, or used in conjunction with the Stata do file
(physfact_rev.do).
These data sets were created as part of The Center for International Development’s ongoing research into
the role of geography in economic development (see www.cid.harvard.edu/economic.htm). They have been
created between 1998 and 2000. Please reference CID if you use this data in a publication.
physfact.dta
contents: land area, elevation, mean distance to coast and rivers, distance from country centroids to
coast and rivers, and population in tropical zones, by country
Variable
Description
Creation/Source of Data & notes
World Bank
wbcode
World Bank Country Code
ESRI, 1996. Arcworld Supplement Data
country
Country name
areakm2
cen_lat
cen_lon
land area (km2)
latitude of country centroid
longitude of country centroid
elev
mean elevation (meters above sea level)
distcr
mean distance to nearest coastline or seanavigable river (km)
distc
mean distance to nearest coastline (km)
distr
mean distance to nearest inland navigable river
(km)
Reference and User’s Guide. Redlands, Calif.
Calculated in equal area projection.
In those countries where the country centroid
fell in the ocean, it was moved to within the
nearest land boundary.
Calculated in geographic projection.
ETOPO5.
Http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/ngdc.html
Distance from sea-navigable rivers and icefree coastline (cstnavrivpc2.shp) calculated
in Plate Caree projection.
Distance from ice-free coastline
(icemaskpc.shp) calculated in Plate Caree
projection.
Distance from sea-navigable rivers and
coastline (inlnavrivpc.shp) calculated in Plate
Caree projection.
Variable
cen_c
Description
distance from centroid of country to nearest
coast (km)
cen_cr
distance from centroid of country to nearest
coast or sea-navigable river (km)
pop100km
Ratio of population within 100 km of ice-free
coast to total population
pop100cr
Ratio of population within 100 km of ice-free
coast/navigable river to total population
troppop
lc100km
population in the geographical tropics (%)
% Land area within 100 km of ice-free coast
lcr100km
% Land area within 100 km of ice-free coast
pop95
1995 Population
pdenpavg
Typical population density experienced by an
individual (persons/km2)
% Land area in geographical tropics
tropicar
Creation/Source of Data & notes
Distance from centroids to ice-free coastline
(icemaskpc.shp) calculated in Plate Caree
projection.
Distance from centroids to ice-free coastline
or sea-navigable river (cstnavrivpc2.shp)
calculated in Plate Caree projection.
Calculated using 100 km from ice-free coast
buffer (created in ArcView using Plate Caree
equidistant projection)
Calculated using 100 km from ice-free coast
or navigable river buffer (created in ArcView
using Plate Caree equidistant projection).
Calculated using geographical tropics mask
Calculated using 100 km from coast buffer
(created in ArcView using Plate Caree
equidistant projection)
Calculated using 100 km from ice-free coast
or navigable river buffer (created in ArcView
using Plate Caree equidistant projection).
Calculated in geographic projection. The
source of the population data is:
http://sedac.ciesin.org/plue/gpw/index.html?
main.html&2
(5’cell density*5’cell pop/total country pop)
Calculated in equal area projection
Summary statistics
Variable
|
Obs
Mean
Std. Dev.
Min
Max
-------------+----------------------------------------------------wbcode |
0
country |
0
areakm2 |
164
809220.7
2010034
2696.434
1.66e+07
cen_lat |
164
21.46479
24.60465 -41.81407
74.70258
cen_lon |
164
18.26724
57.161
-112.103
172.8989
elev |
164
626.9209
560.9754
9.1667
3185.92
distcr |
164
336.1919
466.6859
7.95231
2385.58
distc |
164
403.1246
466.5653
7.79704
2374.23
distr |
164
1003.597
1088.939
22.3941
9407.09
tropicar |
164
.478571
.476015
0
1
troppop |
164
.4684276
.4835593
0
1
lc100km |
164
.3577538
.353317
0
1
lcr100km |
164
.4669456
.3736627
0
1
pop95 |
164
3.27e+07
1.18e+08
11941
1.16e+09
pdenpavg |
164
440.2247
819.9943
1.576
8476.049
pop100km |
164
.4282927
.3631147
0
1
pop100cr |
164
.5472561
.3679012
0
1
cen_c |
164
377.4064
525.5805
1.60821
3374.99
cen_cr |
164
451.738
557.1014
1.04331
3418.48