Computer simulation techniques have been used to investigate the defect chemistry of perovskite-structured ionic conductors based upon AZrO 3 (A = Ca, Ba) and LaMO 3 (M = Sc, Ga). Our studies have examined dopant site-selectivity, oxide ion migration and dopant-defect association at the atomic level. The energetics of dopant incorporation in AZrO 3 show strong correlation with ion size. We predict Y 3ϩ to be one of the most favourable dopants for BaZrO 3 on energetic grounds, which accords with experimental work where this cation is the commonly used acceptor dopant for effective proton conduction. Binding energies for hydroxy-dopant pairs in BaZrO 3 are predicted to be favourable with the magnitude of the association increasing along the series Y < Yb < In < Sc. This suggests that proton mobility would be very sensitive to the type of acceptor dopant ion particularly at higher dopant levels. Oxygen vacancy migration in LaScO 3 is via a curved pathway around the edge of the ScO 6 octahedron. Dopant-vacancy clusters comprised of divalent dopants (Sr, Ca) at the La site have significant binding energies in LaScO 3 , but very low energies in LaGaO 3 . This points to greater trapping of the oxygen vacancies in doped LaScO 3 , perhaps leading to higher activation energies at increasing dopant levels in accord with the available conductivity data.