Data for 2015

Liberal Democracy Index, 2015

Name: Liberal Democracy Index, 2015
Creator: V-Dem Institute, University of Gothenburg
License: https://v-dem.net/data/the-v-dem-dataset/

2015, as V-Dem Institute’s 2026 release gives it · stored as published, never rewritten

Liberal Democracy Index, 2015 covers 176 countries. Denmark is highest, at 0.894; Eritrea is lowest, at 0.006. The middle country reads 0.389. Against 2014, 141 values changed (70 up, 71 down), the same countries are covered.

Download CSV Cite this year

Share this page

Liberal Democracy Index · Data for 2015

HighestDenmark

0.894

LowestEritrea

0.006

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

176countries
1measure
2015the year it describes
165distinct 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, 2015, 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

Liberal Democracy Index, 2015: every country, as published by V-Dem Institute, University of Gothenburg.
derived
1	Denmark`DNK`Northern Europe	0.894
2	Sweden`SWE`Northern Europe	0.881
3	Norway`NOR`Northern Europe	0.871
4	Switzerland`CHE`Western Europe	0.858
5	Costa Rica`CRI`Central America	0.854
6	United States`USA`Northern America	0.848
=7	Estonia`EST`Northern Europe	0.845
=7	Germany`DEU`Western Europe	0.845
9	Chile`CHL`South America	0.839
10	Belgium`BEL`Western Europe	0.837
11	Uruguay`URY`South America	0.832
12	Netherlands`NLD`Western Europe	0.831
13	Portugal`PRT`Southern Europe	0.829
14	New Zealand`NZL`Australia and New Zealand	0.828
15	Finland`FIN`Northern Europe	0.827
=16	Australia`AUS`Australia and New Zealand	0.825
=16	Ireland`IRL`Northern Europe	0.825
18	France`FRA`Western Europe	0.812
19	Austria`AUT`Western Europe	0.805
20	Slovenia`SVN`Southern Europe	0.804
21	Luxembourg`LUX`Western Europe	0.793
22	United Kingdom`GBR`Northern Europe	0.788
23	Italy`ITA`Southern Europe	0.786
24	Greece`GRC`Southern Europe	0.785
25	Lithuania`LTU`Northern Europe	0.780
26	Iceland`ISL`Northern Europe	0.777
27	Poland`POL`Eastern Europe	0.775
28	Brazil`BRA`South America	0.769
29	Czechia`CZE`Eastern Europe	0.766
30	Spain`ESP`Southern Europe	0.759
31	Latvia`LVA`Northern Europe	0.754
32	Japan`JPN`Eastern Asia	0.740
33	Cyprus`CYP`Western Asia	0.737
34	Canada`CAN`Northern America	0.735
35	Slovakia`SVK`Eastern Europe	0.725
36	Cabo Verde`CPV`Western Africa	0.707
37	Croatia`HRV`Southern Europe	0.703
38	Peru`PER`South America	0.688
39	Taiwan`TWN`Eastern Asia	0.686
40	Jamaica`JAM`Caribbean	0.679
41	Trinidad and Tobago`TTO`Caribbean	0.676
42	Barbados`BRB`Caribbean	0.662
43	Israel`ISR`Western Asia	0.654
44	South Africa`ZAF`Southern Africa	0.649
45	Vanuatu`VUT`Melanesia	0.639
46	Suriname`SUR`South America	0.633
47	Ghana`GHA`Western Africa	0.631
48	Tunisia`TUN`Northern Africa	0.629
49	Mauritius`MUS`Eastern Africa	0.627
50	Romania`ROU`Eastern Europe	0.609
51	South Korea`KOR`Eastern Asia	0.599
52	Argentina`ARG`South America	0.590
53	Botswana`BWA`Southern Africa	0.587
54	Senegal`SEN`Western Africa	0.586
55	Malta`MLT`Southern Europe	0.584
56	Namibia`NAM`Southern Africa	0.579
57	Bulgaria`BGR`Eastern Europe	0.566
58	Mongolia`MNG`Eastern Asia	0.556
59	São Tomé and Príncipe`STP`Middle Africa	0.554
60	Panama`PAN`Central America	0.553
61	Colombia`COL`South America	0.551
62	Nepal`NPL`Southern Asia	0.534
63	Benin`BEN`Western Africa	0.523
64	Indonesia`IDN`South-eastern Asia	0.511
65	Georgia`GEO`Western Asia	0.504
66	Niger`NER`Western Africa	0.493
67	Bhutan`BTN`Southern Asia	0.479
68	Hungary`HUN`Eastern Europe	0.477
69	Moldova`MDA`Eastern Europe	0.476
70	Timor-Leste`TLS`South-eastern Asia	0.466
71	El Salvador`SLV`Central America	0.462
72	Solomon Islands`SLB`Melanesia	0.456
73	Liberia`LBR`Western Africa	0.451
74	Kosovo`XKX`Southern Europe	0.450
75	Lesotho`LSO`Southern Africa	0.445
=76	Guyana`GUY`South America	0.444
=76	Malawi`MWI`Eastern Africa	0.444
78	Albania`ALB`Southern Europe	0.435
79	Mexico`MEX`Central America	0.433
80	Seychelles`SYC`Eastern Africa	0.427
81	Kenya`KEN`Eastern Africa	0.426
82	Guatemala`GTM`Central America	0.425
83	India`IND`Southern Asia	0.417
84	Paraguay`PRY`South America	0.416
85	Philippines`PHL`South-eastern Asia	0.409
86	Nigeria`NGA`Western Africa	0.401
87	Sri Lanka`LKA`Southern Asia	0.397
88	Tanzania`TZA`Eastern Africa	0.391
89	Montenegro`MNE`Southern Europe	0.387
90	Zambia`ZMB`Eastern Africa	0.371
91	Bolivia`BOL`South America	0.368
92	Bosnia and Herzegovina`BIH`Southern Europe	0.363
93	Mali`MLI`Western Africa	0.349
94	Papua New Guinea`PNG`Melanesia	0.345
95	Dominican Republic`DOM`Caribbean	0.344
96	Serbia`SRB`Southern Europe	0.341
97	Singapore`SGP`South-eastern Asia	0.331
98	Sierra Leone`SLE`Western Africa	0.318
99	Kyrgyzstan`KGZ`Central Asia	0.317
100	Burkina Faso`BFA`Western Africa	0.306
101	Côte d’Ivoire`CIV`Western Africa	0.304
102	Hong Kong`HKG`Eastern Asia	0.303
103	Mozambique`MOZ`Eastern Africa	0.299
104	Lebanon`LBN`Western Asia	0.295
105	Guinea-Bissau`GNB`Western Africa	0.290
106	Kuwait`KWT`Western Asia	0.278
=107	Fiji`FJI`Melanesia	0.270
=107	North Macedonia`MKD`Southern Europe	0.270
109	Pakistan`PAK`Southern Asia	0.264
110	Ecuador`ECU`South America	0.263
=111	Madagascar`MDG`Eastern Africa	0.258
=111	Togo`TGO`Western Africa	0.258
113	Somaliland`XSL`Eastern Africa	0.247
114	Honduras`HND`Central America	0.245
115	Haiti`HTI`Caribbean	0.243
116	Comoros`COM`Eastern Africa	0.240
117	Iraq`IRQ`Western Asia	0.236
=118	Morocco`MAR`Northern Africa	0.230
=118	Türkiye`TUR`Western Asia	0.230
120	Ukraine`UKR`Eastern Europe	0.228
121	Gabon`GAB`Middle Africa	0.223
122	Uganda`UGA`Eastern Africa	0.222
123	Jordan`JOR`Western Asia	0.221
124	Zimbabwe`ZWE`Eastern Africa	0.212
125	Malaysia`MYS`South-eastern Asia	0.204
126	Armenia`ARM`Western Asia	0.203
127	Afghanistan`AFG`Southern Asia	0.201
128	Maldives`MDV`Southern Asia	0.187
129	Myanmar`MMR`South-eastern Asia	0.181
130	Central African Republic`CAF`Middle Africa	0.179
131	Mauritania`MRT`Western Africa	0.178
132	Algeria`DZA`Northern Africa	0.175
133	Libya`LBY`Northern Africa	0.172
134	Guinea`GIN`Western Africa	0.161
135	Cameroon`CMR`Middle Africa	0.152
136	Oman`OMN`Western Asia	0.141
137	Rwanda`RWA`Eastern Africa	0.138
138	Iran`IRN`Southern Asia	0.136
139	Nicaragua`NIC`Central America	0.124
140	Somalia`SOM`Eastern Africa	0.123
=141	Angola`AGO`Middle Africa	0.122
=141	DR Congo`COD`Middle Africa	0.122
=143	Cambodia`KHM`South-eastern Asia	0.115
=143	Vietnam`VNM`South-eastern Asia	0.115
145	Djibouti`DJI`Eastern Africa	0.114
146	Kazakhstan`KAZ`Central Asia	0.110
147	Russia`RUS`Eastern Europe	0.109
148	Bangladesh`BGD`Southern Asia	0.108
149	Gambia`GMB`Western Africa	0.106
150	Thailand`THA`South-eastern Asia	0.105
151	Venezuela`VEN`South America	0.103
=152	Ethiopia`ETH`Eastern Africa	0.102
=152	Republic of the Congo`COG`Middle Africa	0.102
154	Belarus`BLR`Eastern Europe	0.100
155	Eswatini`SWZ`Southern Africa	0.097
156	Egypt`EGY`Northern Africa	0.093
157	Chad`TCD`Middle Africa	0.091
158	United Arab Emirates`ARE`Western Asia	0.090
=159	Laos`LAO`South-eastern Asia	0.089
=159	Qatar`QAT`Western Asia	0.089
161	Yemen`YEM`Western Asia	0.069
162	South Sudan`SSD`Eastern Africa	0.066
163	Sudan`SDN`Northern Africa	0.064
=164	Azerbaijan`AZE`Western Asia	0.063
=164	Burundi`BDI`Eastern Africa	0.063
166	Cuba`CUB`Caribbean	0.057
167	China`CHN`Eastern Asia	0.052
168	Bahrain`BHR`Western Asia	0.051
169	Equatorial Guinea`GNQ`Middle Africa	0.050
170	Saudi Arabia`SAU`Western Asia	0.046
171	Tajikistan`TJK`Central Asia	0.042
172	Uzbekistan`UZB`Central Asia	0.036
173	Syria`SYR`Western Asia	0.025
174	Turkmenistan`TKM`Central Asia	0.024
175	North Korea`PRK`Eastern Asia	0.014
176	Eritrea`ERI`Eastern Africa	0.006

02In 2015

At either end

The 5 countries at each end of the headline.

Highest

1Denmark0.894
2Sweden0.881
3Norway0.871
4Switzerland0.858
5Costa Rica0.854

Lowest

176Eritrea0.006
175North Korea0.014
174Turkmenistan0.024
173Syria0.025
172Uzbekistan0.036

A higher value is the better result. The middle country reads 0.389. “Shared” marks a value another country also holds.

032014 → 2015

Since 2014

What changed between 2014 and this one: who joined or left, and how far the headline moved.

+0 / −0countries joined / left
141values changed, of 176 in both
70 · 71rose · fell
35unchanged

Rose most

Sri Lanka0.267 → 0.397+0.130
Fiji0.145 → 0.270+0.125
Guyana0.385 → 0.444+0.059
Romania0.570 → 0.609+0.039
Benin0.485 → 0.523+0.038

Fell most

Burkina Faso0.417 → 0.306−0.111
India0.488 → 0.417−0.071
Yemen0.117 → 0.069−0.048
Hungary0.521 → 0.477−0.044
Moldova0.516 → 0.476−0.040

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 2015.
165 distinct values among 176
Values are stored exactly as published, to 3 decimals. 2 countries share 0.845. 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 liberal-democracy-2015-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 (2015). Liberal Democracy Index, 2015 [data set], describing 2015. As held by Nations Inquiry, https://nationsinquiry.com/datasets/liberal-democracy/2015

0636 held

Other years

‹ The year before
Liberal Democracy Index, 2014
176 countries
The year after ›
Liberal Democracy Index, 2016
176 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

07Questions