Restoring forest ecosystems has become a global priority. Yet, soil dynamics are still poorlyassessed among restoration studies and there is a lack of knowledge on how soil is affected by forestrestoration process. The study compiles information on soil dynamics in forest restoration based on soil phys-ical, chemical, and biological attributes in temperate and tropical forest regions. It encompasses 50 scien-tific papers across 17 different countries and contains 1,469 points of quantitative information of soilattributes between reference (e.g., old-growth forest) and restored ecosystems (e.g., forests in their initial orsecondary stage of succession) within the same study. To be selected, studies had to be conducted in forestecosystems, to include multiple sampling sites (replicates) in both restored and reference ecosystems, andto encompass quantitative data of soil attributes for both reference and restored ecosystems. We recordedin each study the following information: (1) study year, (2) country, (3) forest region (tropical or temper-ate), (4) latitude, (5) longitude, (6) soil class, (7) past disturbance, (8) restoration strategy (active or pas-sive), (9) restoration age, (10) soil attribute type (physical, chemical, or biological); (11) soil attribute, (12)soil attribute unit, (13) soil sampling (procedures), (14) date of sampling, (15) soil depth sampled, (16) soilanalysis, (17) quantitative values of soil attributes for both restored and reference ecosystems, (18) type ofvariation (standard error of deviation) for both restored and reference ecosystems, and (19) quantitativevalues of the variation for both restored and reference ecosystems. These were the most common dataavailable in the selected studies. This extensive database on the extent soil physical, chemical, and biologicalattributes differ between reference and restored ecosystems can fill part of the existing gap on both soilscience and forest restoration in terms of (1) which are the critical soil attributes to be monitored duringforest restoration? and (2) how do environmental factors affect soil attributes in forest restoration? Thedata will be made available to the scientific community for further analyses on both soil science and forestrestoration. Soil information gaps during the forest restoration process and their general patterns can beaddressed using this data set. There are no copyright or proprietary restrictions.