A Database of World Stocks of Infrastructure, 1950-95

This article describes an annual database of physical infrastructure stocks for a cross-section of 152 countries for 1950–95. The database includes estimates of six measures of infrastructure: the number of telephones, the number of telephone main lines, kilowatts of electricity-generating capacity, kilometers of total roads, kilometers of paved roads, and kilometers of railway lines. Both raw and manipulated data sets, in which series have been linked to overcome changes in definition and coverage, are reported. Some measures of infrastructure quality, such as the percentage of roads in poor condition, the percentage of local telephone calls that do not go through, the percentage of diesel locomotives available for use, and the percentage of electricity lost from the distribution system, are included. The data on all series except total roads are of reasonably good quality and should prove useful to researchers. The article also presents regression results relating stocks of infrastructure to population, per capita gross domestic product, land area, and level of urbanization. It shows that stocks of telephones, electricity-generating capacity, and paved roads tend to increase proportionately with population and more than proportionately with per capita gross domestic product. Both the length of total roads and the length of total rail lines rise with country size and are relatively insensitive to population and income.