  The inclusive cross sections of W$^+$, W$^-$, and Z boson production from 34
different measurements performed in proton-(anti)proton collisions at
center-of-mass energies $\sqrt{s}$ = 1.8--13 TeV, are compared to perturbative
QCD calculations at next-to-next-to-leading-order (NNLO) accuracy with four
sets of parton distributions functions (CT14, HERAPDF2.0, MMHT14, and NNPDF3.0
PDFs) and varying values of the strong coupling constant at the Z mass pole,
$\alpha_s(m_Z)$. The data-theory agreement is good within the experimental and
theoretical uncertainties, with the CT14 and MMHT14 parton densities providing
the most overall consistent description of all cross section data. A value of
$\alpha_s(m_Z) = 0.1188^{+0.0019}_{-0.0013}$ is extracted from a combined fit
of the 28 experimental LHC measurements to the corresponding NNLO theoretical
predictions obtained with the MMHT14 PDF set, which provides the most robust
and stable QCD coupling extraction of this analysis.
