Global patterns of maritime piracy, 2000–09

This article introduces the Maritime Piracy Data (MPD), a dataset dedicated to understanding the nature, dynamics, and causes of contemporary piracy and armed robbery against ships. Data on maritime piracy are presented in two formats: an event set and an annual, country-level set. The event data track every maritime piracy attack reported to the International Maritime Bureau’s Piracy Reporting Center (IMB/PRC) for a total of 3,413 events between 2000 and 2009. Entries provide event details including date, geo-coded location, attacker nationality, victim nationality, success, vessel type, violence level, loot taken, and/or ransom demanded. The annual data count the number of piracy events emanating from the world’s 147 coastal countries over the same decade for a total of 1,470 observations. Entries include country-level information regarding the maritime sector including coastal shipping traffic, coastline length, seaports, distances to major sea lane chokepoints, and merchant marine size. The article describes the main features of the data, provides descriptive statistics, and briefly illustrates their potential utility for research. The MPD has potential utility for scholars examining non-traditional threats generated by non-state actors; for those studying the potential relationships between governance and conflict on land and piracy at sea; and for individuals engaged in policy-relevant analyses evaluating the effectiveness and efficiency of counter-piracy strategies and tactics.