Example files for -geoplot-: Can data convey a political point of view?

[Dirk Enzmann]

-geoplot- (on SSC) written by Ben Jann is a fantastic program and the tutorial "Maps in Stata III: geoplot" provided by Asjad Naqvi is very helpful. However, its example data files "countries.dta" and "countries_shp.dta" available at GitHub convey a political message that is highly problematic: According to the data Crimea is part of Russia, not of Ukraine. Only a few states have recognized Russia's annexation of Crimea in violation of international law. I wonder where the data come from and who decided to code Crimea as being a part of Russia. Perhaps Asjad Naqvi can answer this?

For those, who want to create maps using the data of the "countries" files, here is a correction that relocates Crimea to Ukraine to which it rightfully belongs:

use "countries_shp.dta", clear

// Move Crimea from Russia to Ukraine:
replace _ID = 34 if _ID==76 & inrange(shape_order,7478,7551)
replace shape_order = shape_order - 6839 if _ID == 34 & shape_order > 638

// Sort Crimea data next to Ukraine data:
sort _ID, stable

// Delete "Russian border" separating Ukraine and Crimea:
drop if _ID==34 & inrange(shape_order,639,654)
drop if _ID==34 & inrange(shape_order,37,50)
replace shape_order = shape_order + 1000 if _ID==34 & inrange(shape_order,655,712)
replace shape_order = shape_order + 44 if _ID==34 & inrange(shape_order,51,638)
replace shape_order = shape_order - 1618 if _ID==34 & inrange(shape_order,1655,1712)
sort shape_order in 10687/11368

save "countries_shp.dta", replace

The Stata Forum should not be a place for political debates. But the data are a strong provocation that cannot be ignored in view of Russia's criminal war against Ukraine: Слава Україні!

[Asjad Naqvi]

Dear Dirk Enzmann, thanks for spotting this! I never used this map layer for country-level visualizations so I never noticed this. Just to illustrate how to work with global layers.

The data is from Natural Earth website: https://www.naturalearthdata.com/. It is a popular place for getting free global layers. It also contains a disputed territory layer.
GitHub repo is here: https://github.com/nvkelso/natural-earth-vector. Please feel free to Pull Request the changes in the repositories.

I will swap out the data with official WB or UN boundaries and hope that they are less controversial.

Cheers!
Asjad

[Asjad Naqvi]

I have swapped out the countries.dta and countries_shp.dta files with the official WB data (https://datacatalog.worldbank.org/se...ial-Boundaries) on GitHub.

[Dirk Enzmann]

Thank you Ashjad for explaining the source!

I had a look at https://www.naturalearthdata.com/ and I am happy that I started this thread because I learned a lot, see for example the discussion at the Natural Earth Data Forum here. We always have to read the “small print”, too, and everyone has to decide for themselves whether they are prepared to take moral responsibility for using their shape files. In light of that discussion, I have decided to refrain from using their files.