Dataset on demographic and Socio-economic triggers of informal settlements: a case study from the peri-urban areas of Woldia

The data collection strategy involved the use of multiple methods. While Primary source of data were collected through the use of structured and semi-structured interviews, focus group discussions and a questionnaire household survey; secondary data were gathered from published and unpublished materials and land related legal and policy documents. Primary data were gathered through house to house survey directly administered to a random sample of 244 household heads. Besides to the household survey, primary data were collected via in-depth interviews, and focus group discussion. Interviews were conducted with land brokers, land speculators, key informants and governmental officials. Focus group discussion was executed in two different sessions: one from kebele 04 and the other from the municipality. A total of 87 people from government officials, land brokers and speculators and key informants were interviewed. Secondary data were collected from available documents and land-related legal and policy documents. The data collection process is followed by a detailed qualitative and quantitative data analysis. The qualitative analysis part includes analysis of data obtained from interviews and focus group discussions. However, statistical analysis includes descriptive statistics such as cross tabulation, percentage and correlation were employed using IBM SPSS 20. Informal settlement continues to be a challenge in the contemporary urbanization in Ethiopia. Thus, these dataset have important implications for urban land policy both at local, national and wider audience beyond Ethiopia to reconsider urban informality. The data of this manuscript is associated with the publication [10.1016/j.landusepol.2020.104573].