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Dataset · V-Dem Institute

Academic Freedom Index

36 years, 1990–2025 · 176 countries

V-Dem's Academic Freedom Index asks how free scholars and universities are in practice: to research and teach, to share and publish findings, to govern their own institutions, to work without surveillance or intimidation on campus, and to express themselves academically and culturally. It runs from 0 to 1, and a higher figure means more freedom.

This site holds every year from 1990 to 2025, read from V-Dem Institute’s own data and stored exactly as published.

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Academic Freedom Index · the file

Newest
Academic Freedom Index, 2025
Held
36 years · 6,201 rows
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

0136 years

Every year

Every year comes from V-Dem Institute’s 2026 release, recalculated on one method. Each opens the full table for that year; each downloads as a CSV.

1990bar height: countries covered, up to 1762025
Every year of Academic Freedom Index held on this site, newest first, with its download files.
YearCountriesChangeReadDownload
Academic Freedom Index, 2025Newest176±0September 26, 2026CSV
Academic Freedom Index, 2024176±0September 26, 2026CSV
Academic Freedom Index, 2023176±0September 26, 2026CSV
Academic Freedom Index, 2022176±0September 26, 2026CSV
Academic Freedom Index, 2021176±0September 26, 2026CSV
Academic Freedom Index, 2020176±0September 26, 2026CSV
Academic Freedom Index, 2019176±0September 26, 2026CSV
Academic Freedom Index, 2018176±0September 26, 2026CSV
Academic Freedom Index, 2017176±0September 26, 2026CSV
Academic Freedom Index, 2016176±0September 26, 2026CSV
Academic Freedom Index, 2015176±0September 26, 2026CSV
Academic Freedom Index, 2014176±0September 26, 2026CSV
Show all 36 years
YearCountriesChangeReadDownload
Academic Freedom Index, 2013176±0September 26, 2026CSV
Academic Freedom Index, 2012176±0September 26, 2026CSV
Academic Freedom Index, 2011176+2September 26, 2026CSV
Academic Freedom Index, 2010174±0September 26, 2026CSV
Academic Freedom Index, 2009174+1September 26, 2026CSV
Academic Freedom Index, 2008173±0September 26, 2026CSV
Academic Freedom Index, 2007173±0September 26, 2026CSV
Academic Freedom Index, 2006173+1September 26, 2026CSV
Academic Freedom Index, 2005172±0September 26, 2026CSV
Academic Freedom Index, 2004172±0September 26, 2026CSV
Academic Freedom Index, 2003172+2September 26, 2026CSV
Academic Freedom Index, 2002170±0September 26, 2026CSV
Academic Freedom Index, 2001170±0September 26, 2026CSV
Academic Freedom Index, 2000170±0September 26, 2026CSV
Academic Freedom Index, 1999170+1September 26, 2026CSV
Academic Freedom Index, 1998169+1September 26, 2026CSV
Academic Freedom Index, 1997168±0September 26, 2026CSV
Academic Freedom Index, 1996168±0September 26, 2026CSV
Academic Freedom Index, 1995168+1September 26, 2026CSV
Academic Freedom Index, 1994167±0September 26, 2026CSV
Academic Freedom Index, 1993167+1September 26, 2026CSV
Academic Freedom Index, 1992166+2September 26, 2026CSV
Academic Freedom Index, 1991164+3September 26, 2026CSV
Academic Freedom Index, 1990161—September 26, 2026CSV

Every year in one file, one row per country per year: academic-freedom-all-editions-nations-inquiry.csv

023 columns

What’s in the file

Every column, what it holds, how it is stored and what its values look like — what a reader needs before opening the file.

Every column in the newest file of Academic Freedom Index: what it holds, how it is stored, and its range.
ColumnWhat it holdsStored asRange, 2025DistinctEmptySpread
CountrycountryNameThe country’s name, as this file spells it.Text—1760
ISO Codecountry_codeIdentifierThe ISO 3166-1 alpha-3 code, added by this site. Every table here joins on it.Text · 3 letters—1760
Academic freedom (0–1)academic_freedomHeadlineThe headline figure: Academic freedom index (0–1).Number · up to 3 decimals0.019Nicaragua0.978Czechiamiddle 0.6191560

Profiled from the newest file. Range: the lowest and highest value, with the country holding it when only one does. Spread: countries in ten equal steps from lowest to highest. A higher value is the better result.

03176 countries across every year

Who is covered

How many countries each year holds, continent by continent, who joined and who left, and which places this site covers that the dataset never has.

All regions
Countries in each year of Academic Freedom Index, by continent.
201420152016201720182019202020212022202320242025
Africa555555555555555555555555
Americas272727272727272727272727
Asia484848484848484848484848
Europe404040404040404040404040
Oceania666666666666
All176176176176176176176176176176176176

The newest 12 of 36 years.

Who joined and who left

04Provenance

Where it comes from

The path from the publisher to this page, and what was checked and changed on the way.

The site’s method
  1. 1 · Publisher

    V-Dem Institute, University of Gothenburg

  2. 2 · Their file

    Academic Freedom Index 2025

  3. 3 · Read by this site

    September 26, 2026

    Imported by a script that parses each figure and writes it down unrounded.
  4. 4 · Stored as

    36 files, one per year

    Each downloads as a CSV, or every year together as academic-freedom-all-editions-nations-inquiry.csv
  5. 5 · Used on

    Its statistic page, and every profile it measures

Precision

The headline is stored to 3 decimals, as published.

Rounded by this site

Never. Tables on screen may show fewer decimals; the files never do.

Changed by this site

Reshaped into one row per country: regional and income-group totals are left out, only the columns listed are kept, each row gets its ISO 3166 code, and some country names are brought to one spelling. No value is recalculated, rescaled or rounded.

From the V-Dem Institute's Country-Year Core dataset (v16), University of Gothenburg, published under CC BY-SA 4.0. V-Dem's data runs back to 1789; the series here starts in 1990 so that every row belongs to a present-day country.

05Reuse

Licence and credit

What the publisher’s licence lets you do, what it asks of you, and a credit line and citation ready to copy.

Every publisher’s terms

Licence · checked September 26, 2026

CC BY-SA 4.0

  • Share and redistribute it
  • Adapt it and build on it
  • Use it commercially
  • Credit the publisher
  • Say what you changed
  • Publish anything adapted from it under the same licence

Share, adapt and use commercially with credit — and anything you publish that adapts it must carry the same licence.

A credit line

Source: V-Dem Institute, University of Gothenburg, Academic Freedom Index, via Nations Inquiry.

Cite this dataset

V-Dem Institute, University of Gothenburg. Academic Freedom Index, 1990–2025 [data set]. As held by Nations Inquiry, https://nationsinquiry.com/datasets/academic-freedom

The publisher’s own citation: Coppedge, M. et al. V-Dem Country-Year Dataset v16. Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) Project, University of Gothenburg.

Plain-language summary, not legal advice. The licence text is what binds.

06Questions

Academic Freedom Index: questions and answers

What is the Academic Freedom Index?

V-Dem's Academic Freedom Index asks how free scholars and universities are in practice: to research and teach, to share and publish findings, to govern their own institutions, to work without surveillance or intimidation on campus, and to express themselves academically and culturally. It runs from 0 to 1, and a higher figure means more freedom.

Which years of the Academic Freedom Index can I download?

All 36, from 1990 to 2025, each as a CSV file, or every year together in one CSV.

Does V-Dem Institute rank countries on it?

No. V-Dem Institute publishes values only. The positions shown on this site are derived by ordering the published values, and are labelled as ours.

Can I use it commercially?

Yes, under CC BY-SA 4.0, with credit to V-Dem Institute. The licence text is linked on this page.

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