Data for 2024

Academic Freedom Index, 2024

Name: Academic Freedom Index, 2024
Creator: V-Dem Institute, University of Gothenburg
License: https://v-dem.net/data/the-v-dem-dataset/

2024, as V-Dem Institute’s 2026 release gives it · stored as published, never rewritten

Academic Freedom Index, 2024 covers 176 countries. Czechia is highest, at 0.978; North Korea is lowest, at 0.018. The middle country reads 0.679. Against 2023, 151 values changed (54 up, 97 down), the same countries are covered.

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Academic Freedom Index · Data for 2024

HighestCzechia

0.978

LowestNorth Korea

0.018

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

176countries
1measure
2024the year it describes
153distinct 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, 2024, 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, 2024: every country, as published by V-Dem Institute, University of Gothenburg.
derived
1	Czechia`CZE`Eastern Europe	0.978
2	Estonia`EST`Northern Europe	0.974
3	Sweden`SWE`Northern Europe	0.942
4	Jamaica`JAM`Caribbean	0.939
5	Belgium`BEL`Western Europe	0.934
=6	Chile`CHL`South America	0.922
=6	Ireland`IRL`Northern Europe	0.922
=6	Slovenia`SVN`Southern Europe	0.922
=9	Honduras`HND`Central America	0.919
=9	Luxembourg`LUX`Western Europe	0.919
11	Costa Rica`CRI`Central America	0.915
12	Latvia`LVA`Northern Europe	0.914
13	Barbados`BRB`Caribbean	0.911
14	Vanuatu`VUT`Melanesia	0.909
15	Panama`PAN`Central America	0.905
16	Solomon Islands`SLB`Melanesia	0.904
=17	Dominican Republic`DOM`Caribbean	0.901
=17	Slovakia`SVK`Eastern Europe	0.901
19	Cyprus`CYP`Western Asia	0.896
=20	Austria`AUT`Western Europe	0.894
=20	Denmark`DNK`Northern Europe	0.894
=20	Uruguay`URY`South America	0.894
23	Seychelles`SYC`Eastern Africa	0.891
24	Botswana`BWA`Southern Africa	0.890
25	Australia`AUS`Australia and New Zealand	0.883
26	Germany`DEU`Western Europe	0.880
27	Spain`ESP`Southern Europe	0.877
28	France`FRA`Western Europe	0.876
29	Iceland`ISL`Northern Europe	0.875
30	Malta`MLT`Southern Europe	0.874
31	Trinidad and Tobago`TTO`Caribbean	0.871
32	Cabo Verde`CPV`Western Africa	0.866
33	Nigeria`NGA`Western Africa	0.863
34	Peru`PER`South America	0.858
35	Canada`CAN`Northern America	0.852
=36	Brazil`BRA`South America	0.849
=36	Sierra Leone`SLE`Western Africa	0.849
=38	Bulgaria`BGR`Eastern Europe	0.843
=38	Norway`NOR`Northern Europe	0.843
=38	Poland`POL`Eastern Europe	0.843
=41	Burkina Faso`BFA`Western Africa	0.840
=41	Finland`FIN`Northern Europe	0.840
=41	Israel`ISR`Western Asia	0.840
44	Kenya`KEN`Eastern Africa	0.835
45	South Africa`ZAF`Southern Africa	0.831
46	Taiwan`TWN`Eastern Asia	0.830
=47	Papua New Guinea`PNG`Melanesia	0.829
=47	Senegal`SEN`Western Africa	0.829
49	South Korea`KOR`Eastern Asia	0.827
50	Croatia`HRV`Southern Europe	0.825
=51	Montenegro`MNE`Southern Europe	0.824
=51	Switzerland`CHE`Western Europe	0.824
53	Romania`ROU`Eastern Europe	0.823
54	Italy`ITA`Southern Europe	0.822
55	Kosovo`XKX`Southern Europe	0.821
56	Nepal`NPL`Southern Asia	0.817
57	Suriname`SUR`South America	0.812
58	Gambia`GMB`Western Africa	0.811
=59	Lithuania`LTU`Northern Europe	0.809
=59	New Zealand`NZL`Australia and New Zealand	0.809
61	Malawi`MWI`Eastern Africa	0.796
62	Albania`ALB`Southern Europe	0.794
63	Guyana`GUY`South America	0.792
64	Ghana`GHA`Western Africa	0.784
65	Sri Lanka`LKA`Southern Asia	0.782
66	Serbia`SRB`Southern Europe	0.771
67	Niger`NER`Western Africa	0.767
68	United Kingdom`GBR`Northern Europe	0.764
69	Japan`JPN`Eastern Asia	0.760
70	North Macedonia`MKD`Southern Europe	0.759
=71	Benin`BEN`Western Africa	0.748
=71	Netherlands`NLD`Western Europe	0.748
73	Zambia`ZMB`Eastern Africa	0.745
74	Ecuador`ECU`South America	0.731
75	Togo`TGO`Western Africa	0.730
=76	Georgia`GEO`Western Asia	0.725
=76	Timor-Leste`TLS`South-eastern Asia	0.725
78	Bosnia and Herzegovina`BIH`Southern Europe	0.724
79	Namibia`NAM`Southern Africa	0.718
80	Portugal`PRT`Southern Europe	0.715
81	Madagascar`MDG`Eastern Africa	0.710
82	Mexico`MEX`Central America	0.703
83	Argentina`ARG`South America	0.702
84	Mongolia`MNG`Eastern Asia	0.701
85	Greece`GRC`Southern Europe	0.699
86	Lesotho`LSO`Southern Africa	0.697
87	Moldova`MDA`Eastern Europe	0.696
88	Bolivia`BOL`South America	0.680
89	United States`USA`Northern America	0.677
90	Paraguay`PRY`South America	0.674
91	Guatemala`GTM`Central America	0.668
92	Philippines`PHL`South-eastern Asia	0.659
93	Côte d’Ivoire`CIV`Western Africa	0.656
94	Haiti`HTI`Caribbean	0.650
95	Maldives`MDV`Southern Asia	0.639
96	Fiji`FJI`Melanesia	0.638
97	Armenia`ARM`Western Asia	0.637
98	São Tomé and Príncipe`STP`Middle Africa	0.636
99	Liberia`LBR`Western Africa	0.609
100	Guinea-Bissau`GNB`Western Africa	0.606
101	Colombia`COL`South America	0.605
102	Tanzania`TZA`Eastern Africa	0.596
103	Lebanon`LBN`Western Asia	0.588
104	Somaliland`XSL`Eastern Africa	0.567
105	Tunisia`TUN`Northern Africa	0.558
106	Morocco`MAR`Northern Africa	0.542
107	Somalia`SOM`Eastern Africa	0.481
108	DR Congo`COD`Middle Africa	0.471
109	Kuwait`KWT`Western Asia	0.469
110	Singapore`SGP`South-eastern Asia	0.466
111	Kyrgyzstan`KGZ`Central Asia	0.456
112	Thailand`THA`South-eastern Asia	0.444
113	Angola`AGO`Middle Africa	0.439
114	Indonesia`IDN`South-eastern Asia	0.436
115	Bhutan`BTN`Southern Asia	0.425
116	Iraq`IRQ`Western Asia	0.412
=117	Gabon`GAB`Middle Africa	0.410
=117	Mozambique`MOZ`Eastern Africa	0.410
119	Uganda`UGA`Eastern Africa	0.375
=120	Mali`MLI`Western Africa	0.346
=120	Mauritius`MUS`Eastern Africa	0.346
122	Pakistan`PAK`Southern Asia	0.344
=123	Central African Republic`CAF`Middle Africa	0.342
=123	Kazakhstan`KAZ`Central Asia	0.342
125	Malaysia`MYS`South-eastern Asia	0.330
126	Djibouti`DJI`Eastern Africa	0.317
127	Hungary`HUN`Eastern Europe	0.304
128	Libya`LBY`Northern Africa	0.303
129	Comoros`COM`Eastern Africa	0.302
130	Republic of the Congo`COG`Middle Africa	0.300
=131	Bangladesh`BGD`Southern Asia	0.286
=131	Guinea`GIN`Western Africa	0.286
133	Uzbekistan`UZB`Central Asia	0.281
134	Yemen`YEM`Western Asia	0.275
135	Ukraine`UKR`Eastern Europe	0.270
136	Vietnam`VNM`South-eastern Asia	0.269
137	Ethiopia`ETH`Eastern Africa	0.267
138	Chad`TCD`Middle Africa	0.229
139	Hong Kong`HKG`Eastern Asia	0.227
140	Cameroon`CMR`Middle Africa	0.226
141	Mauritania`MRT`Western Africa	0.216
142	Oman`OMN`Western Asia	0.215
143	Sudan`SDN`Northern Africa	0.213
144	Cambodia`KHM`South-eastern Asia	0.212
145	Russia`RUS`Eastern Europe	0.210
146	El Salvador`SLV`Central America	0.206
147	Burundi`BDI`Eastern Africa	0.201
148	Bahrain`BHR`Western Asia	0.199
149	Jordan`JOR`Western Asia	0.194
150	United Arab Emirates`ARE`Western Asia	0.192
151	Algeria`DZA`Northern Africa	0.190
152	Syria`SYR`Western Asia	0.182
153	Venezuela`VEN`South America	0.176
154	Eswatini`SWZ`Southern Africa	0.165
155	Zimbabwe`ZWE`Eastern Africa	0.161
156	Azerbaijan`AZE`Western Asia	0.152
157	India`IND`Southern Asia	0.147
158	Iran`IRN`Southern Asia	0.145
159	Laos`LAO`South-eastern Asia	0.142
160	Türkiye`TUR`Western Asia	0.108
161	Qatar`QAT`Western Asia	0.104
=162	Afghanistan`AFG`Southern Asia	0.099
=162	Cuba`CUB`Caribbean	0.099
164	Egypt`EGY`Northern Africa	0.083
165	Tajikistan`TJK`Central Asia	0.078
166	South Sudan`SSD`Eastern Africa	0.077
=167	China`CHN`Eastern Asia	0.066
=167	Saudi Arabia`SAU`Western Asia	0.066
=169	Equatorial Guinea`GNQ`Middle Africa	0.064
=169	Turkmenistan`TKM`Central Asia	0.064
171	Rwanda`RWA`Eastern Africa	0.055
172	Belarus`BLR`Eastern Europe	0.041
173	Eritrea`ERI`Eastern Africa	0.031
174	Myanmar`MMR`South-eastern Asia	0.023
175	Nicaragua`NIC`Central America	0.019
176	North Korea`PRK`Eastern Asia	0.018

02In 2024

At either end

The 5 countries at each end of the headline.

Highest

1Czechia0.978
2Estonia0.974
3Sweden0.942
4Jamaica0.939
5Belgium0.934

Lowest

176North Korea0.018
175Nicaragua0.019
174Myanmar0.023
173Eritrea0.031
172Belarus0.041

A higher value is the better result. The middle country reads 0.679. “Shared” marks a value another country also holds.

032023 → 2024

Since 2023

What changed between 2023 and this one: who joined or left, and how far the headline moved.

+0 / −0countries joined / left
151values changed, of 176 in both
54 · 97rose · fell
25unchanged

Rose most

Bangladesh0.131 → 0.286+0.155
Thailand0.296 → 0.444+0.148
Japan0.625 → 0.760+0.135
Syria0.056 → 0.182+0.126
Albania0.692 → 0.794+0.102

Fell most

Argentina0.965 → 0.702−0.263
Portugal0.935 → 0.715−0.220
Ukraine0.481 → 0.270−0.211
Indonesia0.601 → 0.436−0.165
Mozambique0.543 → 0.410−0.133

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 2024.
153 distinct values among 176
Values are stored exactly as published, to 3 decimals. 3 countries share 0.922. 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-2024-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 (2024). Academic Freedom Index, 2024 [data set], describing 2024. As held by Nations Inquiry, https://nationsinquiry.com/datasets/academic-freedom/2024

0636 held

Other years

‹ The year before
Academic Freedom Index, 2023
176 countries
The year after ›
Academic Freedom Index, 2025
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