Abstract Background Significant reductions in malaria transmission have been achieved over the last 15Â years with elimination occurring in a small number of countries, however, increasing drug and insecticide resistance threatens these gains. Insecticide resistance has decreased the observed mortality to the most commonly used insecticide class, the pyrethroids, and the number of alternative classes approved for use in public health is limited. Disease prevention and elimination relies on operational control of Anopheles malaria vectors, which requires the deployment of effective insecticides. Resistance is a rapidly evolving phenomena and the resources and human capacity to continuously monitor vast numbers of mosquito populations in numerous locations simultaneously are not available. Methods Resistance data are obtained from published articles, by contacting authors and custodians of unpublished data sets. Where possible data is disaggregated to single sites and collection periods to give a fine spatial resolution. Results Currently the data set includes data from 1955 to October 2016 from 71 malaria endemic countries and 74 anopheline species. This includes data for all four classes of insecticides and associated resistance mechanisms. Conclusions Resistance is a rapidly evolving phenomena and the resources and human capacity to continuously monitor vast numbers of mosquito populations in numerous locations simultaneously are not available. The Malaria Atlas Project-Insecticide Resistance (MAP-IR) venture has been established to develop tools that will use available data to provide best estimates of the spatial distribution of insecticide resistance and help guide control programmes on this serious issue.