This database is a set of 2828 suspended and bed sediment compositional measurements from 1683 locations around the globe. It is named Global River Sediments (GloRiSe), and includes major, minor and trace elements, along with mineralogical and petrographic data, and provides time-series for some sites. Each observation is complemented by metadata describing geographic location, sampling date and time, sample treatment and measurement details, which allows for grouping and selection of observations, as well as for interoperability with external data sources and improves interpretability.