Global Synthetic Dataset

Largest publicly available individual-level data on human trafficking. The dataset is made possible by innovative technology to protect the safety and privacy of victims and survivors. Provides critical information on the socio-demographic profile of victims, types of exploitation, and the trafficking process, including means of control used on victims. This data, updated in 2024, represents 20 years of assistance and hotline data – with substantial contributions from IOM and Polaris, as well as contributions from A21, RecollectiV, and the Portuguese Observatory on Trafficking in Human Beings (OTSH).

This dataset represents over 206,000 victims and survivors of trafficking identified across 190 countries and territories from 2002 to 2022. Note that some attributes (e.g., countries) are suppressed as they are highly sensitive and cannot be protected, although it does not mean that no trafficking cases were recorded.

This is the third synthetic dataset derived from victim of trafficking case records. It accurately preserves the statistical properties of the original victim case records while providing the guarantee of differential privacy. Differential privacy was first developed at Microsoft Research in 2006, and today represents the gold standard in privacy protection. The differential privacy approach to synthetic data generation provides quantifiable privacy guarantees against any privacy attacks, even across multiple data releases. The technology has enabled CTDC to share more data and conduct more robust research while protecting privacy and civil liberties.