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Data for 1992

Academic Freedom Index, 1992

1992, 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, 1992 covers 166 countries. Estonia is highest, at 0.974; North Korea is lowest, at 0.010. The middle country reads 0.658. Against 1991, 65 values changed (50 up, 15 down), 2 countries joined.

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Academic Freedom Index · Data for 1992

HighestEstonia

0.974

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, 1992, 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 166 countries · select a heading to sort

Academic Freedom Index, 1992: every country, as published by V-Dem Institute, University of Gothenburg.
derived
1EstoniaESTNorthern Europe0.974
2ItalyITASouthern Europe0.967
3DenmarkDNKNorthern Europe0.966
4BelgiumBELWestern Europe0.964
5AustriaAUTWestern Europe0.963
6GermanyDEUWestern Europe0.962
7PolandPOLEastern Europe0.960
8UruguayURYSouth America0.956
9SpainESPSouthern Europe0.954
=10PortugalPRTSouthern Europe0.951
=10SwedenSWENorthern Europe0.951
12FinlandFINNorthern Europe0.947
13HungaryHUNEastern Europe0.946
14IsraelISRWestern Asia0.945
15NetherlandsNLDWestern Europe0.941
16JamaicaJAMCaribbean0.939
17CzechiaCZEEastern Europe0.938
18IrelandIRLNorthern Europe0.936
19LuxembourgLUXWestern Europe0.933
20VenezuelaVENSouth America0.929
21NorwayNORNorthern Europe0.926
22SwitzerlandCHEWestern Europe0.923
=23CanadaCANNorthern America0.922
=23Costa RicaCRICentral America0.922
25United StatesUSANorthern America0.921

02In 1992

At either end

The 5 countries at each end of the headline.

Highest

  1. 1Estonia0.974
  2. 2Italy0.967
  3. 3Denmark0.966
  4. 4Belgium0.964
  5. 5Austria0.963

Lowest

  1. 166North Korea0.010
  2. 165Myanmar0.019
  3. 164Laos0.021
  4. 163Iraq0.029
  5. 162Syria0.030

A higher value is the better result. The middle country reads 0.658. “Shared” marks a value another country also holds.

031991 → 1992

Since 1991

What changed between 1991 and this one: who joined or left, and how far the headline moved.

  • +2 / −0countries joined / left
  • 65values changed, of 164 in both
  • 50 · 15rose · fell
  • 99unchanged

Rose most

Fell most

+ Bosnia and Herzegovina+ São Tomé and Príncipe

Both years come from the same release, so a difference here is a change in the data, not a revision of it. Every country’s full history is charted on the statistic page.

04Caveats

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 1992.

  • 151 distinct values among 166

    Values are stored exactly as published, to 3 decimals. 2 countries share 0.951. 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 166 countries has every column.

05The 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 (1992). Academic Freedom Index, 1992 [data set], describing 1992. As held by Nations Inquiry, https://nationsinquiry.com/datasets/academic-freedom/1992

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