We consolidate global data sources about public office holders into an easy-to-use dataset.
Politically exposed persons (PEP) is a term from the financial services industry to describe individuals who have been entrusted with a prominent public function. This might include members of cabinets, parliaments, senior public servants and military personnel, or managers of state-owned companies.
Being classified as a PEP does not imply any misconduct. However, the concept is important because PEPs and members of their families should be the subject of enhanced public scrutiny. Identifying PEPs and conducting enhanced due diligence on the origins of their wealth is mandated by financial crime laws in most countries.
The scope of PEP data is less well-defined compared to anti-money laundering datasets such as sanctions lists. Our goal is therefore to make the scope and depth of our data coverage transparent and publish the underlying methodology.
By mapping out the political positions that should be included on a country-by-country basis, we define quality metrics that measure coverage across time, jurisdiction and level of government.
We focus on automating the collection of PEP data rather than relying on the manual monitoring political events and election results. Our ultimate objective is to help expand the coverage of political persons in community-driven data resources like Wikidata. This way, the information ultimately becomes a commodity, produced via a distributed process.
Our top priority is comprehensive coverage of PEPs at national level of influence.
OpenSanctions automatically monitors and imports global databases into our data, such as lists of world leaders. We are also expanding our coverage of nationally published data, such as lists of parliamentarians or state governors. We enrich the PEP data with further information about the potential influence of officeholders, e.g. to reflect a person holding both a public office and running a business.
Name | Publisher | Country | Coverage | Entities | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Argentina Members of Parliament | Honorable Cámara de Diputados de la Nación Argentina | Argentina | updated daily | 258 | |
Armenia public officials and associates by Hetq Online | Hetq Onlinenon-official source | Armenia | not updated | 8,611 | |
Austria Public Officials from Meine Abgeordneten | Meine Abgeordnetennon-official source | Austria | updated daily | 1,527 | |
Brazil Politically Exposed Persons | CGU (General Control Office of the Union) | Brazil | updated daily | 134,778 | |
Cayman Islands Members of Parliament | The Parliament of the Cayman Islands | Cayman Islands | updated daily | 62 | |
Cayman Islands senior judicial officers | Cayman Islands Judicial Administration | Cayman Islands | updated weekly | 20 | |
CIA World Factbook heads of state and government | Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) | United States | updated daily | 1,210 | |
CIA World Leaders | Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) | United States | updated daily | 11,112 | |
Colombia Joining the Dots PEPs | Joining the Dots with PEPs (Colombia)non-official source | Colombia | updated daily | 188 | |
Colombian Administrative Department of Public Service PEP Declarations | Deparatamento Administrativo del la Funcion Publica | Colombia | updated daily | 10,420 | |
Croatia State Registry of Public Officials | Povjerenstvo za odlučivanje o sukobu interesa | Croatia | updated daily | 5,140 | |
Estonia Members of the Riigikogu | Riigikogu | Estonia | updated daily | 102 | |
EU Prominent Public Functions | Official Journal of the European Union | European Union | updated daily | 1,392 | |
Every Politician | MySociety (UK Citizens Online Democracy)non-official source | not updated | 59,035 | ||
French Mayors | Plateforme ouverte des données publiques françaises | France | updated monthly | 69,768 | |
French National Assembly | National Assembly of France | France | updated weekly | 3,990 | |
French Senators | La plateforme des données ouvertes du Sénat | France | updated daily | 1,025 | |
Hong Kong Principal Officials | GovHK | Hong Kong SAR China | updated daily | 52 | |
Indonesia 2018 Regional Head Election Results | Komisi Pemilihan Umum (KPU) | Indonesia | updated daily | 652 | |
Israel Knesset members | Knesset | Israel | updated daily | 497 | |
Latvian Saeima | Saeima | Latvia | updated daily | 101 | |
Lithuania Members of the Seimas | Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania | Lithuania | updated daily | 141 | |
Members of German Legislatures from AbgeordnetenWatch | Parlamentwatch e.V.non-official source | Germany | updated daily | 2,645 | |
Members of the European Commitee of the Regions | European Committee of the Regions | European Union | updated daily | 603 | |
Members of the European Parliament | European Parliament | European Union | updated daily | 926 | |
Members of the Hong Kong Legislative Council | Hong Kong Legislative Council | Hong Kong SAR China | updated daily | 190 | |
Members of the National Assembly of Venezuela | Asamblea Nacional de Venezuela | Venezuela | updated daily | 274 | |
Members of the Parliament of Cuba | Proyecto Inventarionon-official source | Cuba | updated monthly | 471 | |
Members of the United States Congress | Library of Congress | United States | updated daily | 1,255 | |
Mexico's deputies | Cámara de Diputados | Mexico | updated daily | 503 | |
Mexico's governors | Conferencia Nacional de Gobernadoresnon-official source | Mexico | updated daily | 91 | |
Mexico's senators | Senado de La República | Mexico | updated daily | 128 | |
Nigeria Joining the Dots PEPs and PEP Relatives | Joining the Dots with PEPs (Nigeria)non-official source | Nigeria | updated daily | 4,403 | |
Nigerian Politically Exposed Persons data by Chipper | Chippernon-official source | Nigeria | updated daily | 42,765 | |
North Macedonia elected and appointed officials | State Commission for Prevention of Corruption | North Macedonia | updated daily | 9,619 | |
PEPs from Chile interest and asset declarations | Consejo para la Transparencia (CPLT) | Chile | updated daily | 7,185 | |
Slovenian political officials from Zvezoskop | Oštro (Slovenia)non-official source | Slovenia | not updated | 366 | |
Uruguayan Politically Exposed Persons (PEP) | Secretaría Nacional para la Lucha contra el Lavado de Activos y Financiamiento del Terrorismo | Uruguay | updated daily | 6,814 | |
US Legislators by Plural (formerly OpenStates) | Pluralnon-official source | United States | updated weekly | 11,515 | |
US State Department Senior Officials | US State Department | United States | updated daily | 600 | |
Wikidata Politically Exposed Persons | Wikidatanon-official source | updated daily | 183,212 |
Official sources are government authorities and inter-governmental agencies. Non-official sources are community, civil-society or journalistic organisations, including:
You can download the PEP bulk data or look up individual entries using the web search or API. Commercial users can license the dataset as part of the OpenSanctions bulk data license. We do not offer a separate licensing option for PEPs data alone.
Our methodology documentation explains how PEP position information can be used to select custom subsets of the data for specific use cases.
If you want to help map out political positions and their office holders, please consider using one of the following paths:
OpenSanctions is free for non-commercial users. Businesses must acquire a data license to use the dataset.