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Data for 2018

Government Censorship of the Media, 2018

2018, as V-Dem Institute’s 2026 release gives it · stored as published, never rewritten

Government Censorship of the Media, 2018 covers 176 countries. Belgium is highest, at 3.489; Syria is lowest, at -3.045. The middle country reads 0.841. Against 2017, 91 values changed (40 up, 51 down), the same countries are covered.

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Government Censorship of the Media · Data for 2018

HighestBelgium

3.489

LowestSyria

-3.045

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

01Position · derived

The table

Every country and every column of Government Censorship of the Media, 2018, as published. V-Dem Institute ranks nobody on this measure; the position is derived here by ordering the published values. “=” marks a shared position.

Showing 25 of 176 countries · select a heading to sort

Government Censorship of the Media, 2018: every country, as published by V-Dem Institute, University of Gothenburg.
derived
1BelgiumBELWestern Europe3.489
2SwedenSWENorthern Europe3.378
3NorwayNORNorthern Europe3.299
4DenmarkDNKNorthern Europe3.258
5EstoniaESTNorthern Europe3.201
6SwitzerlandCHEWestern Europe3.173
7LuxembourgLUXWestern Europe3.043
8PortugalPRTSouthern Europe3.029
9CanadaCANNorthern America3.013
10IrelandIRLNorthern Europe2.989
11FinlandFINNorthern Europe2.939
12GermanyDEUWestern Europe2.887
13ItalyITASouthern Europe2.859
14IcelandISLNorthern Europe2.849
15NetherlandsNLDWestern Europe2.760
16New ZealandNZLAustralia and New Zealand2.749
17ChileCHLSouth America2.739
18UruguayURYSouth America2.661
19United KingdomGBRNorthern Europe2.476
20GhanaGHAWestern Africa2.440
21South KoreaKOREastern Asia2.371
22PeruPERSouth America2.190
23FranceFRAWestern Europe2.184
24VanuatuVUTMelanesia2.174
25TaiwanTWNEastern Asia2.163

02In 2018

At either end

The 5 countries at each end of the headline.

Highest

  1. 1Belgium3.489
  2. 2Sweden3.378
  3. 3Norway3.299
  4. 4Denmark3.258
  5. 5Estonia3.201

Lowest

  1. 176Syria-3.045
  2. 175South Sudan-3.017
  3. 174North Korea-2.775
  4. 173Turkmenistan-2.720
  5. 172Eritrea-2.700

A higher value is the better result. The middle country reads 0.841. “Shared” marks a value another country also holds.

032017 → 2018

Since 2017

What changed between 2017 and this one: who joined or left, and how far the headline moved.

  • +0 / −0countries joined / left
  • 91values changed, of 176 in both
  • 40 · 51rose · fell
  • 85unchanged

Rose most

Fell most

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 2018.

  • 175 distinct values among 176

    Values are stored exactly as published, to 3 decimals. 2 countries share 1.989. 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

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 (2018). Government Censorship of the Media, 2018 [data set], describing 2018. As held by Nations Inquiry, https://nationsinquiry.com/datasets/media-censorship/2018

0636 held

Other years

07Questions

Government Censorship of the Media, 2018: questions and answers

Which country has the highest media censorship in Government Censorship of the Media, 2018?

Belgium, at 3.489, of the 176 countries in the file.

What year does Government Censorship of the Media, 2018 describe?

2018.

How many countries does Government Censorship of the Media, 2018 cover?

176.

Where can I download Government Censorship of the Media, 2018?

On this page, as a CSV file holding every value exactly as published, or from the publisher’s own site, linked below.

Is Government Censorship of the Media, 2018 the newest?

No. The newest held here is Government Censorship of the Media, 2025.

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