Describes the content of an H-mode confinement database that has been assembled for the ITER project. Data were collected from six machines of different sizes and shapes: ASDEX, DIII-D, JET, JFT-2M, PBX-M and PDX. A detailed description of the criteria used in the selection of the data and the definition of each of the variables is given. The authors also present an analysis of the conditions of the database, the scalings (power law and offset linear) of the data with both dimensional and dimensionless variables, and predictions of the expected confinement time for ITER