These charts are generated live from the current dataset. Toggle each between yearly and per-decade views, switch to stacked bars, and download the underlying figures. For the classification schemes, see the Codebook.
Bodies in existence
Legal forms
Policy domains
Functions
Government function (COFOG)
Explore · 1922–2026
A century of the state, rearranging itself
Every dot is a public body. Its position is the department it answered to; its colour is the function it served. Drag the year and watch bodies migrate between departments as governments reshuffled the machinery of the state.
Position shows each body’s parent of record; where a body sat under more than one department in a year, the longest-running tie is shown. Click any dot to open its full record. Bodies with no recorded parent in a given year are counted in the caption but not drawn.