The Rockwool–Duke Global Child Welfare Database (RDGCWD) is a cross-national aggregate longitudinal data resource created to facilitate comparative research on children’s involvement with child welfare systems (CWS) and child protective services (CPS) across national contexts. The basis for the RDGCWD is harmonized data collected from national and transnational child welfare and statistical agencies on three types of contact: maltreatment investigation, substantiated maltreatment, and out-of-home placement. The database covers 44 countries for the period 2000–2020 with 33 country–year observations of children investigated by CWS/CPS, 104 country–year observations of investigations by CWS/CPS, 194 country–year observations of CWS/CPS confirmations of maltreatment, 66 country-year observations of children maltreated, 233 country–year observations of children entering out-of-home care, 402 country–year observations of children residing in out-of-home care at a specific point in time, and 55 country-year observations of entrances into care. Interested researchers can access the data at the National Data Archive on Child Abuse and Neglect (NDACAN).Previous article in issueNext article in issueThis research note introduces the Rockwool–Duke Global Child Welfare Database (RDGCWD) to the scientific community as a new publicly available research resource for comparative research on child welfare involvement. The RDGCWD compiles harmonized cross-national aggregate information from the Global North about children who experienced contact with child welfare systems (CWS) or child protective services (CPS) between 2000 and 2020. The RDGCWD provides a unique resource for comparative and longitudinal research on child maltreatment and child welfare systems for 44 countries, a substantial increase compared to previous comparative efforts (Gilbert et al., 2009, Gilbert et al., 2012, Jud et al., 2013).

Data were collected from national child welfare agencies or national or transnational statistical agencies (see Table S1 in Supplementary Materials for details), and include measures of child maltreatment investigations, confirmed child maltreatment, and children in out-of-home care. Thus, the data cover children’s contact with official administrative systems. Population data are included for the measurement of incidence and prevalence of system contact and sources provided for all collected data. Data are directly linkable to country–year-level data from the OECD, WHO, Eurostat, and other sources of annualized country-level data. Fig. 1 provides an overview of which measures are available for specific country–years.

RDGCWD was established during the period 2021–2022 with a grant provided by the ROCKWOOL Foundation with the stated aim of developing a data resource to support comparative child welfare research and further understanding of cross-national variation and trends in CWS/CPS contact in the Global North. Because the data resource relies solely on national-level administrative statistics, no ethical clearance was needed for data collection or access.