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Data for 2005

Academic Freedom Index, 2005

2005, 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, 2005 covers 172 countries. Poland is highest, at 0.977; North Korea is lowest, at 0.010. The middle country reads 0.730. Against 2004, 52 values changed (25 up, 27 down), the same countries are covered.

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Academic Freedom Index · Data for 2005

HighestPoland

0.977

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, 2005, 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 172 countries · select a heading to sort

Academic Freedom Index, 2005: every country, as published by V-Dem Institute, University of Gothenburg.
derived
1PolandPOLEastern Europe0.977
2EstoniaESTNorthern Europe0.974
=3AustriaAUTWestern Europe0.969
=3PortugalPRTSouthern Europe0.969
5ItalyITASouthern Europe0.967
6BelgiumBELWestern Europe0.964
7LithuaniaLTUNorthern Europe0.963
8GermanyDEUWestern Europe0.962
=9ChileCHLSouth America0.961
=9SlovakiaSVKEastern Europe0.961
11UruguayURYSouth America0.959
12SpainESPSouthern Europe0.956
13SwedenSWENorthern Europe0.951
=14ArgentinaARGSouth America0.950
=14JamaicaJAMCaribbean0.950
16LatviaLVANorthern Europe0.949
17FinlandFINNorthern Europe0.947
=18CyprusCYPWestern Asia0.946
=18HungaryHUNEastern Europe0.946
=20CzechiaCZEEastern Europe0.945
=20IsraelISRWestern Asia0.945
22BulgariaBGREastern Europe0.939
23LuxembourgLUXWestern Europe0.938
24IrelandIRLNorthern Europe0.936
25SloveniaSVNSouthern Europe0.932

02In 2005

At either end

The 5 countries at each end of the headline.

Highest

  1. 1Poland0.977
  2. 2Estonia0.974
  3. 3Austriashared0.969
  4. 3Portugalshared0.969
  5. 5Italy0.967

Lowest

  1. 172North Korea0.010
  2. 171Turkmenistan0.012
  3. 170Eritrea0.021
  4. 169Myanmar0.031
  5. 168Laos0.039

A higher value is the better result. The middle country reads 0.730. “Shared” marks a value another country also holds.

032004 → 2005

Since 2004

What changed between 2004 and this one: who joined or left, and how far the headline moved.

  • +0 / −0countries joined / left
  • 52values changed, of 172 in both
  • 25 · 27rose · fell
  • 120unchanged

Rose most

Fell most

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 2005.

  • 146 distinct values among 172

    Values are stored exactly as published, to 3 decimals. 3 countries share 0.856. 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 172 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 (2005). Academic Freedom Index, 2005 [data set], describing 2005. As held by Nations Inquiry, https://nationsinquiry.com/datasets/academic-freedom/2005

0636 held

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