Data for 1990

Liberal Democracy Index, 1990

Name: Liberal Democracy Index, 1990
Creator: V-Dem Institute, University of Gothenburg
License: https://v-dem.net/data/the-v-dem-dataset/

1990, as V-Dem Institute’s 2026 release gives it · stored as published, never rewritten

Liberal Democracy Index, 1990 covers 165 countries. Denmark is highest, at 0.880; Sudan is lowest, at 0.012. The middle country reads 0.205.

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Liberal Democracy Index · Data for 1990

HighestDenmark

0.880

LowestSudan

0.012

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

165countries
1measure
1990the year it describes
144distinct 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 Liberal Democracy Index, 1990, 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 165 countries · select a heading to sort

Liberal Democracy Index, 1990: every country, as published by V-Dem Institute, University of Gothenburg.
derived
1	Denmark`DNK`Northern Europe	0.880
2	Sweden`SWE`Northern Europe	0.878
3	Germany`DEU`Western Europe	0.853
4	Australia`AUS`Australia and New Zealand	0.851
5	Norway`NOR`Northern Europe	0.845
6	Costa Rica`CRI`Central America	0.838
7	Switzerland`CHE`Western Europe	0.829
8	Finland`FIN`Northern Europe	0.819
9	Portugal`PRT`Southern Europe	0.815
10	Netherlands`NLD`Western Europe	0.814
11	Spain`ESP`Southern Europe	0.811
12	New Zealand`NZL`Australia and New Zealand	0.808
13	France`FRA`Western Europe	0.802
14	United States`USA`Northern America	0.800
15	Belgium`BEL`Western Europe	0.797
16	Greece`GRC`Southern Europe	0.788
17	Luxembourg`LUX`Western Europe	0.785
18	Austria`AUT`Western Europe	0.780
19	Iceland`ISL`Northern Europe	0.775
=20	Ireland`IRL`Northern Europe	0.760
=20	Uruguay`URY`South America	0.760
=22	Canada`CAN`Northern America	0.754
=22	Japan`JPN`Eastern Asia	0.754
24	United Kingdom`GBR`Northern Europe	0.742
25	Italy`ITA`Southern Europe	0.732
26	Lithuania`LTU`Northern Europe	0.729
27	Hungary`HUN`Eastern Europe	0.715
28	Czechia`CZE`Eastern Europe	0.710
29	Israel`ISR`Western Asia	0.689
30	Estonia`EST`Northern Europe	0.681
31	Brazil`BRA`South America	0.678
32	Poland`POL`Eastern Europe	0.660
33	Barbados`BRB`Caribbean	0.636
34	Chile`CHL`South America	0.630
=35	Argentina`ARG`South America	0.617
=35	Trinidad and Tobago`TTO`Caribbean	0.617
37	Cyprus`CYP`Western Asia	0.608
38	Mauritius`MUS`Eastern Africa	0.603
39	Venezuela`VEN`South America	0.595
40	Vanuatu`VUT`Melanesia	0.580
41	Botswana`BWA`Southern Africa	0.577
42	Suriname`SUR`South America	0.547
43	Malta`MLT`Southern Europe	0.545
44	India`IND`Southern Asia	0.540
45	Slovenia`SVN`Southern Europe	0.513
46	South Korea`KOR`Eastern Asia	0.500
47	Ecuador`ECU`South America	0.467
48	Bulgaria`BGR`Eastern Europe	0.454
49	Latvia`LVA`Northern Europe	0.452
50	Jamaica`JAM`Caribbean	0.448
51	Bolivia`BOL`South America	0.431
52	Philippines`PHL`South-eastern Asia	0.430
53	Papua New Guinea`PNG`Melanesia	0.425
=54	Nicaragua`NIC`Central America	0.414
=54	Solomon Islands`SLB`Melanesia	0.414
56	Namibia`NAM`Southern Africa	0.403
57	Peru`PER`South America	0.393
58	Senegal`SEN`Western Africa	0.381
59	Panama`PAN`Central America	0.367
60	Türkiye`TUR`Western Asia	0.348
61	Belarus`BLR`Eastern Europe	0.343
62	Gambia`GMB`Western Africa	0.332
63	Armenia`ARM`Western Asia	0.327
64	Colombia`COL`South America	0.316
65	Moldova`MDA`Eastern Europe	0.301
66	Singapore`SGP`South-eastern Asia	0.299
67	Romania`ROU`Eastern Europe	0.298
68	Cabo Verde`CPV`Western Africa	0.289
69	Sri Lanka`LKA`Southern Asia	0.275
70	Tanzania`TZA`Eastern Africa	0.270
71	Thailand`THA`South-eastern Asia	0.264
72	Honduras`HND`Central America	0.257
73	Hong Kong`HKG`Eastern Asia	0.252
74	Mongolia`MNG`Eastern Asia	0.235
75	Ukraine`UKR`Eastern Europe	0.227
76	Taiwan`TWN`Eastern Asia	0.226
77	Zimbabwe`ZWE`Eastern Africa	0.222
78	Guyana`GUY`South America	0.218
=79	Nepal`NPL`Southern Asia	0.217
=79	Niger`NER`Western Africa	0.217
81	Dominican Republic`DOM`Caribbean	0.216
82	Paraguay`PRY`South America	0.208
83	Guatemala`GTM`Central America	0.205
84	São Tomé and Príncipe`STP`Middle Africa	0.201
85	Pakistan`PAK`Southern Asia	0.198
86	Jordan`JOR`Western Asia	0.197
87	Lebanon`LBN`Western Asia	0.195
88	Côte d’Ivoire`CIV`Western Africa	0.188
89	Mexico`MEX`Central America	0.186
90	Lesotho`LSO`Southern Africa	0.180
=91	Comoros`COM`Eastern Africa	0.178
=91	Seychelles`SYC`Eastern Africa	0.178
93	Morocco`MAR`Northern Africa	0.169
94	Algeria`DZA`Northern Africa	0.164
95	Malaysia`MYS`South-eastern Asia	0.163
=96	Bangladesh`BGD`Southern Asia	0.162
=96	Benin`BEN`Western Africa	0.162
=98	Egypt`EGY`Northern Africa	0.161
=98	Uganda`UGA`Eastern Africa	0.161
=98	Zambia`ZMB`Eastern Africa	0.161
101	Rwanda`RWA`Eastern Africa	0.157
102	Gabon`GAB`Middle Africa	0.152
=103	Kazakhstan`KAZ`Central Asia	0.150
=103	Serbia`SRB`Southern Europe	0.150
105	Fiji`FJI`Melanesia	0.147
106	Mali`MLI`Western Africa	0.145
107	Kyrgyzstan`KGZ`Central Asia	0.141
108	South Africa`ZAF`Southern Africa	0.139
109	Georgia`GEO`Western Asia	0.131
110	Bhutan`BTN`Southern Asia	0.128
111	Cameroon`CMR`Middle Africa	0.127
=112	Central African Republic`CAF`Middle Africa	0.123
=112	Kenya`KEN`Eastern Africa	0.123
=112	Tajikistan`TJK`Central Asia	0.123
115	Yemen`YEM`Western Asia	0.114
=116	Iran`IRN`Southern Asia	0.111
=116	Kuwait`KWT`Western Asia	0.111
=116	Mozambique`MOZ`Eastern Africa	0.111
119	Madagascar`MDG`Eastern Africa	0.110
120	Eswatini`SWZ`Southern Africa	0.104
121	Burkina Faso`BFA`Western Africa	0.102
122	Nigeria`NGA`Western Africa	0.100
123	Ghana`GHA`Western Africa	0.097
124	Russia`RUS`Eastern Europe	0.096
=125	Laos`LAO`South-eastern Asia	0.092
=125	Tunisia`TUN`Northern Africa	0.092
=127	Burundi`BDI`Eastern Africa	0.086
=127	Sierra Leone`SLE`Western Africa	0.086
129	El Salvador`SLV`Central America	0.085
130	Djibouti`DJI`Eastern Africa	0.084
=131	Haiti`HTI`Caribbean	0.080
=131	Qatar`QAT`Western Asia	0.080
133	Azerbaijan`AZE`Western Asia	0.078
134	Malawi`MWI`Eastern Africa	0.077
135	Vietnam`VNM`South-eastern Asia	0.073
136	Albania`ALB`Southern Europe	0.070
137	Uzbekistan`UZB`Central Asia	0.069
138	Oman`OMN`Western Asia	0.066
=139	China`CHN`Eastern Asia	0.065
=139	Republic of the Congo`COG`Middle Africa	0.065
141	Togo`TGO`Western Africa	0.064
142	Liberia`LBR`Western Africa	0.063
143	Iraq`IRQ`Western Asia	0.062
144	Maldives`MDV`Southern Asia	0.059
145	Indonesia`IDN`South-eastern Asia	0.057
146	United Arab Emirates`ARE`Western Asia	0.055
147	DR Congo`COD`Middle Africa	0.051
148	Angola`AGO`Middle Africa	0.050
149	Equatorial Guinea`GNQ`Middle Africa	0.049
=150	Guinea-Bissau`GNB`Western Africa	0.048
=150	Libya`LBY`Northern Africa	0.048
152	Guinea`GIN`Western Africa	0.047
=153	Afghanistan`AFG`Southern Asia	0.045
=153	Mauritania`MRT`Western Africa	0.045
155	Chad`TCD`Middle Africa	0.043
156	Somalia`SOM`Eastern Africa	0.039
=157	Saudi Arabia`SAU`Western Asia	0.037
=157	Syria`SYR`Western Asia	0.037
159	Cuba`CUB`Caribbean	0.033
160	Ethiopia`ETH`Eastern Africa	0.032
161	Cambodia`KHM`South-eastern Asia	0.027
162	Myanmar`MMR`South-eastern Asia	0.020
163	Eritrea`ERI`Eastern Africa	0.015
164	North Korea`PRK`Eastern Asia	0.014
165	Sudan`SDN`Northern Africa	0.012

02In 1990

At either end

The 5 countries at each end of the headline.

Highest

1Denmark0.880
2Sweden0.878
3Germany0.853
4Australia0.851
5Norway0.845

Lowest

165Sudan0.012
164North Korea0.014
163Eritrea0.015
162Myanmar0.020
161Cambodia0.027

A higher value is the better result. The middle country reads 0.205. “Shared” marks a value another country also holds.

03Caveats

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 1990.
144 distinct values among 165
Values are stored exactly as published, to 3 decimals. 3 countries share 0.161. 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 165 countries has every column.

04The 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
165 rows · 4.5 KB · UTF-8, opens in Excel
Opens with 11 lines of source notes; the table starts on row 13.
Download liberal-democracy-1990-nations-inquiry.csv
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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 (1990). Liberal Democracy Index, 1990 [data set], describing 1990. As held by Nations Inquiry, https://nationsinquiry.com/datasets/liberal-democracy/1990

0536 held

Other years

‹ The year before
This is the first year held here.
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Liberal Democracy Index, 1991
169 countries
All of them
Liberal Democracy Index: every year
36 held, with the data dictionary, coverage and licence.
How it has moved, charted by country

06Questions