Why do we need data on conflicts in order to understand peace? The Uppsala Conflict Data Program (UCDP) has been collecting systematic information on organized violence around the world for almost 40 years. In this episode of Researching Peace, the UCDP’s program director Magnus Öberg and project manager Therese Pettersson explain the logic and practice of collecting conflict data and they highlight what makes the UCDP one of the leading data sources in the field of peace and conflict research. Öberg and Pettersson also talk about the recent trends in organized violence in light of the newly released UCDP Georeferenced Event Dataset 21.1.