Protests with a duration of at least three months

Protests that have resulted in a significant government policy or leadership change.

Protests that have experienced violent government crackdowns.

Estimated peak number of protesters.

Reported near-term policy changes or leadership changes in response to the protests.

Protests’ commonly used name, if any (for example, the Yellow Vest protests), or an abbreviated description of the protests.

Sizable street protests that express opposition to the national government as a whole or to its recent policies or actions.

When the protests are first reported in local or national news.

Specific issue(s), event(s), or policy change(s) that sparked the protest.

There is no scientifically precise way to define a significant protest. The word significant here is understood in terms of political importance: the impact of a protest on a country’s political life. While a protest’s size can give some indication of its importance, it is not determinative on its own. A large protest in a country where protesting is legal and occurs frequently may not be as significant as a small protest in a country where public demonstrations are banned and authorities are known to use violence against protesters. To account for the varying environments for protests across regime types, this tracker generally considers protests in contexts with a Freedom in the World rating of “free” or “partly free” to be significant if the protest’s peak size reaches or exceeds 10,000 protesters, and protests with a Freedom in the World rating of “not free” to be significant if the protest’s peak size reaches or exceeds 1,000 protesters.

Although most protests directly related to the coronavirus outbreak are so far quite small, they have been included in the tracker because of their potential impact on governance and policy at the local, national, and international levels and because of the overriding importance of the pandemic crisis.

Data for this tracker are drawn from English-language news sources.