This dataset contains high-resolution (5 km) Standardized Precipitation Evaporation Index (SPEI-HR) drought data for Central Asia. There are forty-eight different SPEI time scales and the available period is from 1981 - 2018, the data was produced using Climate Hazards group InfraRed Precipitation with Station’s (CHIRPS) precipitation dataset and Global Land Evaporation Amsterdam Model’s (GLEAM) potential evaporation dataset. The SPEI-HR dataset, over time and space, correlates fairly well with SPEI values estimated from coarse-resolution Climate Research Unit (CRU) dataset. Furthermore, the SPEI-HR dataset, for 6-month timescale, displayed a good correlation of 0.66 with GLEAM root zone soil moisture and a positive correlation of 0.26 with normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) from Global Inventory Monitoring and Modelling System (GIMMS).