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Dataset · V-Dem Institute

Freedom of Religion

36 years, 1990–2025 · 176 countries

V-Dem's measure of freedom of religion asks whether people are free to choose, change and practise a religion, in private or in public, and whether religious groups can organise without interference from the authorities. It is an expert-coded estimate on an open-ended scale centred near zero, and a higher figure means more religious freedom.

This site holds every year from 1990 to 2025, read from V-Dem Institute’s own data and stored exactly as published.

Freedom of Religion · the file

Newest
Freedom of Religion, 2025
Held
36 years · 6,290 rows
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

0136 years

Every year

Every year comes from V-Dem Institute’s 2026 release, recalculated on one method. Each opens the full table for that year; each downloads as a CSV.

1990bar height: countries covered, up to 1762025
Every year of Freedom of Religion held on this site, newest first, with its download files.
YearCountriesChangeReadDownload
Freedom of Religion, 2025Newest176±0September 29, 2026CSV
Freedom of Religion, 2024176±0September 29, 2026CSV
Freedom of Religion, 2023176±0September 29, 2026CSV
Freedom of Religion, 2022176±0September 29, 2026CSV
Freedom of Religion, 2021176±0September 29, 2026CSV
Freedom of Religion, 2020176±0September 29, 2026CSV
Freedom of Religion, 2019176±0September 29, 2026CSV
Freedom of Religion, 2018176±0September 29, 2026CSV
Freedom of Religion, 2017176±0September 29, 2026CSV
Freedom of Religion, 2016176±0September 29, 2026CSV
Freedom of Religion, 2015176±0September 29, 2026CSV
Freedom of Religion, 2014176±0September 29, 2026CSV
Show all 36 years
YearCountriesChangeReadDownload
Freedom of Religion, 2013176±0September 29, 2026CSV
Freedom of Religion, 2012176±0September 29, 2026CSV
Freedom of Religion, 2011176+1September 29, 2026CSV
Freedom of Religion, 2010175±0September 29, 2026CSV
Freedom of Religion, 2009175±0September 29, 2026CSV
Freedom of Religion, 2008175±0September 29, 2026CSV
Freedom of Religion, 2007175±0September 29, 2026CSV
Freedom of Religion, 2006175±0September 29, 2026CSV
Freedom of Religion, 2005175±0September 29, 2026CSV
Freedom of Religion, 2004175±0September 29, 2026CSV
Freedom of Religion, 2003175±0September 29, 2026CSV
Freedom of Religion, 2002175±0September 29, 2026CSV
Freedom of Religion, 2001175±0September 29, 2026CSV
Freedom of Religion, 2000175±0September 29, 2026CSV
Freedom of Religion, 1999175+1September 29, 2026CSV
Freedom of Religion, 1998174+1September 29, 2026CSV
Freedom of Religion, 1997173±0September 29, 2026CSV
Freedom of Religion, 1996173±0September 29, 2026CSV
Freedom of Religion, 1995173±0September 29, 2026CSV
Freedom of Religion, 1994173±0September 29, 2026CSV
Freedom of Religion, 1993173+1September 29, 2026CSV
Freedom of Religion, 1992172+1September 29, 2026CSV
Freedom of Religion, 1991171+3September 29, 2026CSV
Freedom of Religion, 1990168—September 29, 2026CSV

Every year in one file, one row per country per year: freedom-of-religion-all-editions-nations-inquiry.csv

023 columns

What’s in the file

Every column, what it holds, how it is stored and what its values look like — what a reader needs before opening the file.

Every column in the newest file of Freedom of Religion: what it holds, how it is stored, and its range.
ColumnWhat it holdsStored asRange, 2025DistinctEmptySpread
CountrycountryNameThe country’s name, as this file spells it.Text—1760
ISO Codecountry_codeIdentifierThe ISO 3166-1 alpha-3 code, added by this site. Every table here joins on it.Text · 3 letters—1760
Freedom of religion (latent scale)freedom_of_religionHeadlineThe headline figure: Original latent estimate (≈ −3.5 to +3); higher = more religious freedom.Number · up to 3 decimals-3.294Afghanistan2.792New Zealandmiddle 1.2971710

Profiled from the newest file. Range: the lowest and highest value, with the country holding it when only one does. Spread: countries in ten equal steps from lowest to highest. A higher value is the better result.

03176 countries across every year

Who is covered

How many countries each year holds, continent by continent, who joined and who left, and which places this site covers that the dataset never has.

All regions
Countries in each year of Freedom of Religion, by continent.
201420152016201720182019202020212022202320242025
Africa555555555555555555555555
Americas272727272727272727272727
Asia484848484848484848484848
Europe404040404040404040404040
Oceania666666666666
All176176176176176176176176176176176176

The newest 12 of 36 years.

Who joined and who left

  • 2011
    + South Sudan
  • 1999
    + Kosovo
  • 1998
    + Montenegro
  • 1993
    + Slovakia
  • 1992
    + Bosnia and Herzegovina
  • 1991
    + Croatia+ North Macedonia+ Somaliland

04Provenance

Where it comes from

The path from the publisher to this page, and what was checked and changed on the way.

The site’s method
  1. 1 · Publisher

    V-Dem Institute, University of Gothenburg

  2. 2 · Their file

    Freedom of Religion 2025

  3. 3 · Read by this site

    September 29, 2026

    Imported by a script that parses each figure and writes it down unrounded.
  4. 4 · Stored as

    36 files, one per year

    Each downloads as a CSV, or every year together as freedom-of-religion-all-editions-nations-inquiry.csv
  5. 5 · Used on

    Its statistic page, and every profile it measures

Precision

The headline is stored to 3 decimals, as published.

Rounded by this site

Never. Tables on screen may show fewer decimals; the files never do.

Changed by this site

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.

From the V-Dem Institute's Country-Year Core dataset (v16), University of Gothenburg, published under CC BY-SA 4.0. V-Dem's data runs back to 1789; the series here starts in 1990 so that every row belongs to a present-day country. Stored as the measurement model's original estimate, not V-Dem's 0–4 rescaling.

05Reuse

Licence and credit

What the publisher’s licence lets you do, what it asks of you, and a credit line and citation ready to copy.

Every publisher’s terms

Licence · checked September 29, 2026

CC BY-SA 4.0

  • Share and redistribute it
  • Adapt it and build on it
  • Use it commercially
  • Credit the publisher
  • Say what you changed
  • Publish anything adapted from it under the same licence

Share, adapt and use commercially with credit — and anything you publish that adapts it must carry the same licence.

A credit line

Source: V-Dem Institute, University of Gothenburg, Freedom of Religion, via Nations Inquiry.

Cite this dataset

V-Dem Institute, University of Gothenburg. Freedom of Religion, 1990–2025 [data set]. As held by Nations Inquiry, https://nationsinquiry.com/datasets/freedom-of-religion

The publisher’s own citation: Coppedge, M. et al. V-Dem Country-Year Dataset v16. Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) Project, University of Gothenburg.

Plain-language summary, not legal advice. The licence text is what binds.

06Where it is used

Around the site

Where these numbers appear on this site, and the datasets nearest to it.

07Questions

Freedom of Religion: questions and answers

What is the Freedom of Religion?

V-Dem's measure of freedom of religion asks whether people are free to choose, change and practise a religion, in private or in public, and whether religious groups can organise without interference from the authorities. It is an expert-coded estimate on an open-ended scale centred near zero, and a higher figure means more religious freedom.

Which years of the Freedom of Religion can I download?

All 36, from 1990 to 2025, each as a CSV file, or every year together in one CSV.

Does V-Dem Institute rank countries on it?

No. V-Dem Institute publishes values only. The positions shown on this site are derived by ordering the published values, and are labelled as ours.

Can I use it commercially?

Yes, under CC BY-SA 4.0, with credit to V-Dem Institute. The licence text is linked on this page.

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