Data for 2017

Academic Freedom Index, 2017

Name: Academic Freedom Index, 2017
Creator: V-Dem Institute, University of Gothenburg
License: https://v-dem.net/data/the-v-dem-dataset/

2017, as V-Dem Institute’s 2026 release gives it · stored as published, never rewritten

Academic Freedom Index, 2017 covers 176 countries. Austria is highest, at 0.972; North Korea is lowest, at 0.012. The middle country reads 0.745. Against 2016, 105 values changed (42 up, 63 down), the same countries are covered.

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Academic Freedom Index · Data for 2017

HighestAustria

0.972

LowestNorth Korea

0.012

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

176countries
1measure
2017the year it describes
161distinct values3 decimals, as published
Sep 26, 2026read from the publisher
CC BY-SA 4.0licence

01Position · derived

The table

Every country and every column of Academic Freedom Index, 2017, as published. V-Dem Institute ranks nobody on this measure; the position is derived here by ordering the published values. “=” marks a shared position.

Search this table

Showing 25 of 176 countries · select a heading to sort

Academic Freedom Index, 2017: every country, as published by V-Dem Institute, University of Gothenburg.
derived
1	Austria`AUT`Western Europe	0.972
2	Estonia`EST`Northern Europe	0.970
3	Portugal`PRT`Southern Europe	0.968
4	Uruguay`URY`South America	0.965
=5	Belgium`BEL`Western Europe	0.964
=5	Chile`CHL`South America	0.964
7	Germany`DEU`Western Europe	0.962
8	Latvia`LVA`Northern Europe	0.958
9	Italy`ITA`Southern Europe	0.954
10	Sweden`SWE`Northern Europe	0.951
=11	Cyprus`CYP`Western Asia	0.949
=11	Jamaica`JAM`Caribbean	0.949
13	Denmark`DNK`Northern Europe	0.948
14	Spain`ESP`Southern Europe	0.947
15	Slovakia`SVK`Eastern Europe	0.946
16	Lithuania`LTU`Northern Europe	0.945
17	Finland`FIN`Northern Europe	0.944
18	Czechia`CZE`Eastern Europe	0.939
=19	Israel`ISR`Western Asia	0.938
=19	Luxembourg`LUX`Western Europe	0.938
21	Poland`POL`Eastern Europe	0.934
22	Slovenia`SVN`Southern Europe	0.929
23	Switzerland`CHE`Western Europe	0.926
24	Costa Rica`CRI`Central America	0.922
25	Iceland`ISL`Northern Europe	0.919
26	Mexico`MEX`Central America	0.918
27	Peru`PER`South America	0.915
28	Nigeria`NGA`Western Africa	0.914
29	Romania`ROU`Eastern Europe	0.913
30	Canada`CAN`Northern America	0.912
31	United States`USA`Northern America	0.908
32	Ireland`IRL`Northern Europe	0.907
33	Bulgaria`BGR`Eastern Europe	0.906
34	Panama`PAN`Central America	0.904
35	Barbados`BRB`Caribbean	0.899
36	Solomon Islands`SLB`Melanesia	0.898
37	Norway`NOR`Northern Europe	0.896
38	Burkina Faso`BFA`Western Africa	0.895
=39	France`FRA`Western Europe	0.893
=39	New Zealand`NZL`Australia and New Zealand	0.893
=41	Malta`MLT`Southern Europe	0.891
=41	United Kingdom`GBR`Northern Europe	0.891
43	Australia`AUS`Australia and New Zealand	0.888
44	Honduras`HND`Central America	0.881
=45	Netherlands`NLD`Western Europe	0.880
=45	Vanuatu`VUT`Melanesia	0.880
47	Taiwan`TWN`Eastern Asia	0.877
48	Sierra Leone`SLE`Western Africa	0.874
49	Georgia`GEO`Western Asia	0.872
50	Argentina`ARG`South America	0.871
51	Benin`BEN`Western Africa	0.870
52	Greece`GRC`Southern Europe	0.868
53	Botswana`BWA`Southern Africa	0.866
54	South Korea`KOR`Eastern Asia	0.865
55	Albania`ALB`Southern Europe	0.860
56	Senegal`SEN`Western Africa	0.859
57	Cabo Verde`CPV`Western Africa	0.857
58	Togo`TGO`Western Africa	0.854
59	Trinidad and Tobago`TTO`Caribbean	0.852
60	Nepal`NPL`Southern Asia	0.848
61	Ecuador`ECU`South America	0.847
62	Croatia`HRV`Southern Europe	0.844
63	North Macedonia`MKD`Southern Europe	0.842
64	Gabon`GAB`Middle Africa	0.841
=65	Mali`MLI`Western Africa	0.838
=65	Mongolia`MNG`Eastern Asia	0.838
67	Kosovo`XKX`Southern Europe	0.833
68	Serbia`SRB`Southern Europe	0.826
69	Bolivia`BOL`South America	0.825
70	El Salvador`SLV`Central America	0.824
=71	South Africa`ZAF`Southern Africa	0.819
=71	Suriname`SUR`South America	0.819
73	Guatemala`GTM`Central America	0.813
74	Kenya`KEN`Eastern Africa	0.812
=75	Dominican Republic`DOM`Caribbean	0.809
=75	Liberia`LBR`Western Africa	0.809
77	Ghana`GHA`Western Africa	0.806
78	Papua New Guinea`PNG`Melanesia	0.801
79	Madagascar`MDG`Eastern Africa	0.795
80	Moldova`MDA`Eastern Europe	0.791
81	Philippines`PHL`South-eastern Asia	0.775
82	Brazil`BRA`South America	0.774
83	Guyana`GUY`South America	0.765
=84	Bosnia and Herzegovina`BIH`Southern Europe	0.764
=84	Malawi`MWI`Eastern Africa	0.764
86	Gambia`GMB`Western Africa	0.762
87	Timor-Leste`TLS`South-eastern Asia	0.753
88	Seychelles`SYC`Eastern Africa	0.748
89	Tunisia`TUN`Northern Africa	0.742
90	Niger`NER`Western Africa	0.735
91	Indonesia`IDN`South-eastern Asia	0.733
92	Sri Lanka`LKA`Southern Asia	0.729
93	Paraguay`PRY`South America	0.725
94	Namibia`NAM`Southern Africa	0.724
95	Haiti`HTI`Caribbean	0.706
96	Colombia`COL`South America	0.703
97	São Tomé and Príncipe`STP`Middle Africa	0.696
98	Somaliland`XSL`Eastern Africa	0.685
99	Japan`JPN`Eastern Asia	0.679
100	Lebanon`LBN`Western Asia	0.676
101	Mozambique`MOZ`Eastern Africa	0.669
102	Armenia`ARM`Western Asia	0.667
103	Lesotho`LSO`Southern Africa	0.657
104	Guinea-Bissau`GNB`Western Africa	0.655
=105	Mauritius`MUS`Eastern Africa	0.653
=105	Zambia`ZMB`Eastern Africa	0.653
107	Montenegro`MNE`Southern Europe	0.651
108	Tanzania`TZA`Eastern Africa	0.631
109	Central African Republic`CAF`Middle Africa	0.619
110	Côte d’Ivoire`CIV`Western Africa	0.611
111	Morocco`MAR`Northern Africa	0.600
112	Kyrgyzstan`KGZ`Central Asia	0.596
113	Ukraine`UKR`Eastern Europe	0.560
114	Pakistan`PAK`Southern Asia	0.553
115	Hong Kong`HKG`Eastern Asia	0.543
116	Chad`TCD`Middle Africa	0.532
117	Afghanistan`AFG`Southern Asia	0.518
118	Comoros`COM`Eastern Africa	0.485
119	Kuwait`KWT`Western Asia	0.479
120	Hungary`HUN`Eastern Europe	0.475
121	Singapore`SGP`South-eastern Asia	0.461
122	Somalia`SOM`Eastern Africa	0.458
123	Uganda`UGA`Eastern Africa	0.456
124	Iraq`IRQ`Western Asia	0.430
125	Malaysia`MYS`South-eastern Asia	0.426
126	Nicaragua`NIC`Central America	0.425
127	Republic of the Congo`COG`Middle Africa	0.421
128	Angola`AGO`Middle Africa	0.410
129	Myanmar`MMR`South-eastern Asia	0.397
130	Libya`LBY`Northern Africa	0.396
131	Bhutan`BTN`Southern Asia	0.393
132	Fiji`FJI`Melanesia	0.378
133	Guinea`GIN`Western Africa	0.374
134	DR Congo`COD`Middle Africa	0.371
135	Jordan`JOR`Western Asia	0.367
136	Maldives`MDV`Southern Asia	0.354
137	Russia`RUS`Eastern Europe	0.350
138	India`IND`Southern Asia	0.343
139	Cambodia`KHM`South-eastern Asia	0.329
140	Ethiopia`ETH`Eastern Africa	0.326
141	Algeria`DZA`Northern Africa	0.323
142	Mauritania`MRT`Western Africa	0.308
143	Djibouti`DJI`Eastern Africa	0.277
144	Vietnam`VNM`South-eastern Asia	0.276
145	Cameroon`CMR`Middle Africa	0.264
=146	Venezuela`VEN`South America	0.251
=146	Yemen`YEM`Western Asia	0.251
148	Kazakhstan`KAZ`Central Asia	0.241
149	Bangladesh`BGD`Southern Asia	0.236
150	Sudan`SDN`Northern Africa	0.220
151	Oman`OMN`Western Asia	0.212
152	Belarus`BLR`Eastern Europe	0.196
153	Qatar`QAT`Western Asia	0.174
154	Eswatini`SWZ`Southern Africa	0.172
155	Uzbekistan`UZB`Central Asia	0.150
=156	Thailand`THA`South-eastern Asia	0.144
=156	Zimbabwe`ZWE`Eastern Africa	0.144
=158	Burundi`BDI`Eastern Africa	0.127
=158	United Arab Emirates`ARE`Western Asia	0.127
160	Iran`IRN`Southern Asia	0.124
161	Cuba`CUB`Caribbean	0.105
162	Azerbaijan`AZE`Western Asia	0.092
163	China`CHN`Eastern Asia	0.086
164	Tajikistan`TJK`Central Asia	0.076
165	Rwanda`RWA`Eastern Africa	0.067
=166	Egypt`EGY`Northern Africa	0.064
=166	Equatorial Guinea`GNQ`Middle Africa	0.064
168	Bahrain`BHR`Western Asia	0.055
169	Türkiye`TUR`Western Asia	0.054
170	Laos`LAO`South-eastern Asia	0.051
171	Saudi Arabia`SAU`Western Asia	0.050
172	South Sudan`SSD`Eastern Africa	0.049
173	Syria`SYR`Western Asia	0.037
174	Turkmenistan`TKM`Central Asia	0.022
175	Eritrea`ERI`Eastern Africa	0.020
176	North Korea`PRK`Eastern Asia	0.012

02In 2017

At either end

The 5 countries at each end of the headline.

Highest

1Austria0.972
2Estonia0.970
3Portugal0.968
4Uruguay0.965
5Belgiumshared0.964

Lowest

176North Korea0.012
175Eritrea0.020
174Turkmenistan0.022
173Syria0.037
172South Sudan0.049

A higher value is the better result. The middle country reads 0.745. “Shared” marks a value another country also holds.

032016 → 2017

Since 2016

What changed between 2016 and this one: who joined or left, and how far the headline moved.

+0 / −0countries joined / left
105values changed, of 176 in both
42 · 63rose · fell
71unchanged

Rose most

Gambia0.518 → 0.762+0.244
North Macedonia0.660 → 0.842+0.182
Ecuador0.709 → 0.847+0.138
Uzbekistan0.067 → 0.150+0.083
South Korea0.789 → 0.865+0.076

Fell most

Cameroon0.326 → 0.264−0.062
Hungary0.526 → 0.475−0.051
United Kingdom0.931 → 0.891−0.040
Dominican Republic0.848 → 0.809−0.039
Cambodia0.367 → 0.329−0.038

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 2017.
161 distinct values among 176
Values are stored exactly as published, to 3 decimals. 2 countries share 0.964. 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 176 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

.csv
For a spreadsheet or code
176 rows · 4.7 KB · UTF-8, opens in Excel
Opens with 11 lines of source notes; the table starts on row 13.
Download academic-freedom-2017-nations-inquiry.csv
↗
The publisher’s original
V-Dem Institute’s own file, on its own site.
V-Dem-CY-Core-v16_csv.zip

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 (2017). Academic Freedom Index, 2017 [data set], describing 2017. As held by Nations Inquiry, https://nationsinquiry.com/datasets/academic-freedom/2017

0636 held

Other years

‹ The year before
Academic Freedom Index, 2016
176 countries
The year after ›
Academic Freedom Index, 2018
176 countries
All of them
Academic Freedom Index: every year
36 held, with the data dictionary, coverage and licence.
How it has moved, charted by country

07Questions