The 2016 Environmental Performance Index (EPI) ranks 180 countries on 20 performance indicators in the following 9 policy categories: health impacts, air quality, water and sanitation, water resources, agriculture, forests, fisheries, biodiversity and habitat, and climate and energy. These categories track performance and progress on two broad policy objectives, environmental health and ecosystem vitality. The EPI's proximity-to-target methodology facilitates cross-country comparisons among economic and regional peer groups. The data set includes the 2016 EPI and component scores, backcast EPI scores for 1950-2016, and time-series source data. The 2016 EPI was formally released in Davos, Switzerland, at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum on January 23, 2016. These are the result of collaboration between the Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy (YCELP) and Yale Data-Driven Environmental Solutions Group, Yale University, Columbia University Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN), and the World Economic Forum (WEF). The Interactive Website for the 2016 EPI is at https://epi.yale.edu.