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Data for 1990

Academic Freedom Index, 1990

1990, as V-Dem Institute’s 2026 release gives it · stored as published, never rewritten

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.

Academic Freedom Index, 1990 covers 161 countries. Denmark is highest, at 0.966; North Korea is lowest, at 0.010. The middle country reads 0.552.

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Academic Freedom Index · Data for 1990

HighestDenmark

0.966

LowestNorth Korea

0.010

Shaded by value in five groups of equal size, darkest at the better end.

01Position · derived

The table

Every country and every column of Academic Freedom Index, 1990, as published. V-Dem Institute ranks nobody on this measure; the position is derived here by ordering the published values. “=” marks a shared position.

Showing 25 of 161 countries · select a heading to sort

Academic Freedom Index, 1990: every country, as published by V-Dem Institute, University of Gothenburg.
derived
1DenmarkDNKNorthern Europe0.966
2BelgiumBELWestern Europe0.964
3AustriaAUTWestern Europe0.963
4GermanyDEUWestern Europe0.962
5ItalyITASouthern Europe0.961
6UruguayURYSouth America0.956
7SpainESPSouthern Europe0.954
8PolandPOLEastern Europe0.952
=9PortugalPRTSouthern Europe0.951
=9SwedenSWENorthern Europe0.951
11FinlandFINNorthern Europe0.947
12HungaryHUNEastern Europe0.946
13IsraelISRWestern Asia0.945
14CanadaCANNorthern America0.944
15NetherlandsNLDWestern Europe0.941
16JamaicaJAMCaribbean0.939
17CzechiaCZEEastern Europe0.938
18VenezuelaVENSouth America0.934
19LuxembourgLUXWestern Europe0.933
=20IrelandIRLNorthern Europe0.926
=20NorwayNORNorthern Europe0.926
22SwitzerlandCHEWestern Europe0.923
23Costa RicaCRICentral America0.922
24United StatesUSANorthern America0.921
=25IcelandISLNorthern Europe0.915

02In 1990

At either end

The 5 countries at each end of the headline.

Highest

  1. 1Denmark0.966
  2. 2Belgium0.964
  3. 3Austria0.963
  4. 4Germany0.962
  5. 5Italy0.961

Lowest

  1. 161North Korea0.010
  2. 160Myanmar0.019
  3. 159Laos0.021
  4. 158Eritrea0.029
  5. 157Syria0.030

A higher value is the better result. The middle country reads 0.552. “Shared” marks a value another country also holds.

03Caveats

Read before you use

What this edition’s numbers are and are not, worked out from the file itself.

How values are stored

  • One year of the 2026 release

    Every year in this series comes from V-Dem Institute’s 2026 release, recalculated on one method. It can differ from what was first published for 1990.

  • 148 distinct values among 161

    Values are stored exactly as published, to 3 decimals. 3 countries share 0.284. Countries sharing a value share a position too.

  • The position is ours

    V-Dem Institute publishes values only; the order is this site’s.

  • Nothing missing

    Every one of the 161 countries has every column.

04The files

Download and cite

The table as a file, digit for digit, what this site changed, and a citation for this edition.

Licence in full

What this site changed: 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.

Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0 · what it allows, in plain words

Cite this edition

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

0536 held

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