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Data

Terrain Ruggedness Index

About this data

Source
Nunn and Puga (2012) – processed by Our World in Data
Last updated
April 15, 2018
Date range
1996–1996
Unit
metres of elevation difference
Unit conversion factor
100

Sources and processing

This data is based on the following sources

Nunn and Puga – Ruggedness: The blessing of bad geography in Africa

Retrieved on
April 15, 2018
Retrieved from
https://diegopuga.org/data/rugged/
Citation
This is the citation of the original data obtained from the source, prior to any processing or adaptation by Our World in Data. To cite data downloaded from this page, please use the suggested citation given in Reuse This Work below.
Nunn, N., and Puga, D. (2012). "Ruggedness: The blessing of bad geography in Africa." Review of Economics and Statistics, 94(1), 20–36.
Retrieved on
April 15, 2018
Retrieved from
https://diegopuga.org/data/rugged/
Citation
This is the citation of the original data obtained from the source, prior to any processing or adaptation by Our World in Data. To cite data downloaded from this page, please use the suggested citation given in Reuse This Work below.
Nunn, N., and Puga, D. (2012). "Ruggedness: The blessing of bad geography in Africa." Review of Economics and Statistics, 94(1), 20–36.

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.

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Reuse this work

  • All data produced by third-party providers and made available by Our World in Data are subject to the license terms from the original providers. Our work would not be possible without the data providers we rely on, so we ask you to always cite them appropriately (see below). This is crucial to allow data providers to continue doing their work, enhancing, maintaining and updating valuable data.
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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: Terrain Ruggedness Index”. Our World in Data (2026). Data adapted from Nunn and Puga. Retrieved from https://archive.ourworldindata.org/20260511-092124/grapher/terrain-ruggedness-index.html [online resource] (archived on May 11, 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:

Nunn and Puga (2012) – processed by Our World in Data

Full citation

Nunn and Puga (2012) – processed by Our World in Data. “Terrain Ruggedness Index” [dataset]. Nunn and Puga, “Ruggedness: The blessing of bad geography in Africa” [original data]. Retrieved May 11, 2026 from https://archive.ourworldindata.org/20260511-092124/grapher/terrain-ruggedness-index.html (archived on May 11, 2026).

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