Replication Data for: Sex-Disaggregated Citizenship Statistics: Data Gaps and Why These Matter

Despite international legal commitments guaranteeing women equal rights with men in the acquisition and transmission of citizenship, an estimated 26 percent of the world’s population live under sex-discriminatory citizenship laws. The UN Sustainable Development Goals 2030 seek to end gender discrimination and ensure that every person has a legal identity. On top of the risk to statelessness for children, sex discrimination in citizenship law puts mothers in situations where they may not share the legal identity of their children and thus, potentially not be able to act as their legal guardian, risk custody issues, or maintain abusive relationships at the risk of being separated from them. Moreover, discrimination in citizenship acquisition may push women into dependent migration statuses resulting in similar negative outcomes. This commentary examines the critical role of sex-disaggregated citizenship statistics in advancing these international objectives, and highlights the persistent data gaps that undermine progress toward the SDGs. We identify deficiencies in available data on the acquisition of citizenship by birth and through naturalization, and discuss how the absence of such statistics obscures patterns of inequality and limits the development of effective, evidence-informed policy responses.