This data set provides a time series of global peatland carbon balance and carbon dioxide emissions from land use change throughout the Holocene (the past 11,000 yrs). Global peatland carbon balance was quantified using a) a continuous net carbon balance history throughout the Holocene derived from a data set of 64 dated peat cores, and b) global model simulations with the LPX-Bern model hindcasting the dynamics of past peatland distribution and carbon balance. CO2 emissions from land-use change are based on published scenarios for anthropogenic land use change (HYDE 3.1, HYDE 3.2, KK10) covering the last 10,000 years. This combination of model estimates with CO2 budget constraints narrows the range of past anthropogenic land use change emissions and their contribution to past carbon cycle changes.