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Data for 2002

Participatory Democracy Index, 2002

2002, as V-Dem Institute’s 2026 release gives it · stored as published, never rewritten

V-Dem's Participatory Democracy Index asks how far citizens take part in politics beyond electing representatives — through civil society organisations, referendums and citizens' initiatives, and elected local and regional government — while also requiring genuine national elections. It runs from 0 to 1, and a higher figure is more democratic.

Participatory Democracy Index, 2002 covers 175 countries. Switzerland is highest, at 0.790; Eritrea is lowest, at 0.011. The middle country reads 0.290. Against 2001, 132 values changed (68 up, 64 down), 1 country joined.

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Participatory Democracy Index · Data for 2002

HighestSwitzerland

0.790

LowestEritrea

0.011

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

01Position · derived

The table

Every country and every column of Participatory Democracy Index, 2002, 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 175 countries · select a heading to sort

Participatory Democracy Index, 2002: every country, as published by V-Dem Institute, University of Gothenburg.
derived
1SwitzerlandCHEWestern Europe0.790
2UruguayURYSouth America0.730
3DenmarkDNKNorthern Europe0.724
4New ZealandNZLAustralia and New Zealand0.709
5SwedenSWENorthern Europe0.679
=6ItalyITASouthern Europe0.659
=6NorwayNORNorthern Europe0.659
=8Costa RicaCRICentral America0.651
=8FranceFRAWestern Europe0.651
=8GermanyDEUWestern Europe0.651
=8PolandPOLEastern Europe0.651
=8SlovakiaSVKEastern Europe0.651
13SloveniaSVNSouthern Europe0.642
14AustraliaAUSAustralia and New Zealand0.641
15BelgiumBELWestern Europe0.637
16FinlandFINNorthern Europe0.635
17IrelandIRLNorthern Europe0.633
18SpainESPSouthern Europe0.629
19PortugalPRTSouthern Europe0.627
20HungaryHUNEastern Europe0.622
21AustriaAUTWestern Europe0.619
22IcelandISLNorthern Europe0.615
=23EstoniaESTNorthern Europe0.604
=23United KingdomGBRNorthern Europe0.604
25GreeceGRCSouthern Europe0.603

02In 2002

At either end

The 5 countries at each end of the headline.

Highest

  1. 1Switzerland0.790
  2. 2Uruguay0.730
  3. 3Denmark0.724
  4. 4New Zealand0.709
  5. 5Sweden0.679

Lowest

  1. 175Eritrea0.011
  2. 173Qatarshared0.014
  3. 173United Arab Emiratesshared0.014
  4. 172Saudi Arabia0.020
  5. 169North Koreashared0.043

A higher value is the better result. The middle country reads 0.290. “Shared” marks a value another country also holds.

032001 → 2002

Since 2001

What changed between 2001 and this one: who joined or left, and how far the headline moved.

  • +1 / −0countries joined / left
  • 132values changed, of 174 in both
  • 68 · 64rose · fell
  • 42unchanged

Rose most

Fell most

+ Timor-Leste

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 2002.

  • 154 distinct values among 175

    Values are stored exactly as published, to 3 decimals. 5 countries share 0.651. 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 175 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 (2002). Participatory Democracy Index, 2002 [data set], describing 2002. As held by Nations Inquiry, https://nationsinquiry.com/datasets/participatory-democracy/2002

0636 held

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