Data for 1991

V-Dem Electoral Democracy Index, 1991

Name: V-Dem Electoral Democracy Index, 1991
Creator: V-Dem Institute, University of Gothenburg
License: https://v-dem.net/data/the-v-dem-dataset/

1991, as V-Dem Institute’s 2026 release gives it · stored as published, never rewritten

V-Dem Electoral Democracy Index, 1991 covers 171 countries on 5 measures. Sweden is highest, at 0.912; Saudi Arabia is lowest, at 0.013. The middle country reads 0.336. Against 1990, 128 values changed (104 up, 24 down), 4 countries joined.

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V-Dem Electoral Democracy Index · Data for 1991

HighestSweden

0.912

LowestSaudi Arabia

0.013

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

171countries
5measures per country
1991the year it describes
148distinct values3 decimals, as published
Sep 11, 2026read from the publisher
CC BY-SA 4.0licence

01Position · derived

The table

Every country and every column of V-Dem Electoral Democracy Index, 1991, 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 171 countries · select a heading to sort

V-Dem Electoral Democracy Index, 1991: every country, as published by V-Dem Institute, University of Gothenburg.
derived
1	Sweden`SWE`Northern Europe	0.912	0.878	0.674	0.887	0.875
2	Denmark`DNK`Northern Europe	0.909	0.881	0.715	0.864	0.869
3	Germany`DEU`Western Europe	0.893	0.853	0.647	0.864	0.825
=4	Australia`AUS`Australia and New Zealand	0.892	0.851	0.676	0.804	0.798
=4	Costa Rica`CRI`Central America	0.892	0.841	0.626	0.832	0.787
=4	Spain`ESP`Southern Europe	0.892	0.811	0.664	0.812	0.814
7	Switzerland`CHE`Western Europe	0.887	0.832	0.788	0.852	0.813
8	Czechia`CZE`Eastern Europe	0.883	0.796	0.567	0.784	0.795
9	Greece`GRC`Southern Europe	0.882	0.788	0.599	0.749	0.794
10	Norway`NOR`Northern Europe	0.880	0.845	0.634	0.852	0.840
11	France`FRA`Western Europe	0.875	0.802	0.648	0.787	0.749
12	New Zealand`NZL`Australia and New Zealand	0.871	0.809	0.626	0.655	0.737
13	Belgium`BEL`Western Europe	0.870	0.798	0.616	0.778	0.806
14	Luxembourg`LUX`Western Europe	0.868	0.785	0.588	0.796	0.816
15	United States`USA`Northern America	0.867	0.805	0.625	0.789	0.703
=16	Ireland`IRL`Northern Europe	0.866	0.779	0.618	0.712	0.759
=16	Poland`POL`Eastern Europe	0.866	0.783	0.586	0.744	0.756
18	Finland`FIN`Northern Europe	0.864	0.823	0.607	0.820	0.797
=19	Iceland`ISL`Northern Europe	0.862	0.776	0.611	0.735	0.784
=19	Netherlands`NLD`Western Europe	0.862	0.814	0.587	0.799	0.778
21	Portugal`PRT`Southern Europe	0.859	0.803	0.579	0.744	0.766
22	Austria`AUT`Western Europe	0.856	0.779	0.613	0.760	0.766
23	Hungary`HUN`Eastern Europe	0.843	0.757	0.612	0.666	0.727
24	Uruguay`URY`South America	0.837	0.762	0.680	0.764	0.713
25	Japan`JPN`Eastern Asia	0.835	0.754	0.543	0.737	0.752
26	Canada`CAN`Northern America	0.833	0.754	0.574	0.748	0.710
=27	Argentina`ARG`South America	0.829	0.630	0.567	0.764	0.655
=27	Italy`ITA`Southern Europe	0.829	0.738	0.627	0.767	0.752
29	Brazil`BRA`South America	0.828	0.692	0.556	0.616	0.540
=30	Chile`CHL`South America	0.816	0.750	0.423	0.707	0.524
=30	United Kingdom`GBR`Northern Europe	0.816	0.742	0.570	0.686	0.663
32	Slovenia`SVN`Southern Europe	0.815	0.716	0.574	0.689	0.726
33	Lithuania`LTU`Northern Europe	0.791	0.714	0.500	0.665	0.685
34	Israel`ISR`Western Asia	0.768	0.690	0.506	0.620	0.613
35	Cyprus`CYP`Western Asia	0.764	0.624	0.492	0.639	0.611
=36	Barbados`BRB`Caribbean	0.762	0.646	0.325	0.509	0.619
=36	Trinidad and Tobago`TTO`Caribbean	0.762	0.635	0.475	0.578	0.627
38	Venezuela`VEN`South America	0.742	0.618	0.479	0.630	0.510
39	Malta`MLT`Southern Europe	0.738	0.557	0.323	0.615	0.637
40	Mauritius`MUS`Eastern Africa	0.720	0.605	0.456	0.660	0.560
41	Ecuador`ECU`South America	0.716	0.467	0.470	0.443	0.379
42	India`IND`Southern Asia	0.713	0.561	0.464	0.646	0.477
43	Nicaragua`NIC`Central America	0.688	0.471	0.445	0.579	0.360
44	Vanuatu`VUT`Melanesia	0.687	0.570	0.330	0.520	0.541
45	Bolivia`BOL`South America	0.686	0.456	0.359	0.521	0.423
46	Panama`PAN`Central America	0.684	0.507	0.420	0.555	0.446
47	Botswana`BWA`Southern Africa	0.683	0.577	0.447	0.569	0.436
48	Cabo Verde`CPV`Western Africa	0.662	0.569	0.334	0.500	0.492
49	South Korea`KOR`Eastern Asia	0.647	0.500	0.341	0.503	0.526
50	Bulgaria`BGR`Eastern Europe	0.622	0.508	0.393	0.558	0.513
=51	Armenia`ARM`Western Asia	0.608	0.348	0.266	0.413	0.528
=51	Estonia`EST`Northern Europe	0.608	0.520	0.437	0.550	0.555
53	Latvia`LVA`Northern Europe	0.594	0.495	0.395	0.486	0.485
54	Namibia`NAM`Southern Africa	0.593	0.490	0.361	0.495	0.385
55	Peru`PER`South America	0.590	0.390	0.317	0.400	0.281
56	Jamaica`JAM`Caribbean	0.577	0.448	0.361	0.456	0.434
57	Philippines`PHL`South-eastern Asia	0.565	0.433	0.398	0.479	0.302
58	Mongolia`MNG`Eastern Asia	0.555	0.395	0.299	0.446	0.439
59	Papua New Guinea`PNG`Melanesia	0.554	0.425	0.326	0.339	0.303
60	Romania`ROU`Eastern Europe	0.545	0.328	0.314	0.329	0.439
61	São Tomé and Príncipe`STP`Middle Africa	0.540	0.403	0.351	0.364	0.378
62	Solomon Islands`SLB`Melanesia	0.532	0.414	0.300	0.316	0.319
63	Senegal`SEN`Western Africa	0.522	0.389	0.288	0.435	0.366
64	Türkiye`TUR`Western Asia	0.518	0.361	0.325	0.393	0.320
65	Colombia`COL`South America	0.516	0.390	0.365	0.387	0.260
66	Honduras`HND`Central America	0.490	0.263	0.257	0.274	0.181
67	Belarus`BLR`Eastern Europe	0.489	0.368	0.267	0.273	0.407
68	Bangladesh`BGD`Southern Asia	0.483	0.253	0.213	0.203	0.203
69	Gambia`GMB`Western Africa	0.468	0.332	0.180	0.244	0.273
=70	Benin`BEN`Western Africa	0.462	0.361	0.228	0.439	0.358
=70	Moldova`MDA`Eastern Europe	0.462	0.330	0.221	0.323	0.345
72	Suriname`SUR`South America	0.450	0.374	0.330	0.380	0.349
73	Sri Lanka`LKA`Southern Asia	0.445	0.274	0.237	0.258	0.304
74	Dominican Republic`DOM`Caribbean	0.430	0.203	0.278	0.240	0.228
75	Ukraine`UKR`Eastern Europe	0.429	0.268	0.240	0.298	0.410
76	Comoros`COM`Eastern Africa	0.418	0.197	0.230	0.280	0.286
77	Mexico`MEX`Central America	0.410	0.196	0.228	0.278	0.198
78	Paraguay`PRY`South America	0.401	0.215	0.236	0.211	0.115
79	Niger`NER`Western Africa	0.385	0.254	0.173	0.221	0.275
80	Nepal`NPL`Southern Asia	0.383	0.309	0.205	0.323	0.276
81	Guatemala`GTM`Central America	0.382	0.208	0.245	0.225	0.159
82	Singapore`SGP`South-eastern Asia	0.368	0.301	0.097	0.304	0.324
=83	Albania`ALB`Southern Europe	0.367	0.260	0.142	0.265	0.284
=83	Pakistan`PAK`Southern Asia	0.367	0.196	0.217	0.180	0.133
85	Algeria`DZA`Northern Africa	0.350	0.157	0.139	0.328	0.283
86	Lebanon`LBN`Western Asia	0.336	0.193	0.114	0.219	0.228
=87	Georgia`GEO`Western Asia	0.327	0.140	0.096	0.093	0.273
=87	Haiti`HTI`Caribbean	0.327	0.166	0.191	0.182	0.110
89	Zimbabwe`ZWE`Eastern Africa	0.310	0.225	0.208	0.263	0.217
90	Guyana`GUY`South America	0.309	0.216	0.224	0.134	0.244
91	Gabon`GAB`Middle Africa	0.308	0.189	0.171	0.237	0.198
=92	Côte d’Ivoire`CIV`Western Africa	0.306	0.191	0.198	0.123	0.197
=92	Tajikistan`TJK`Central Asia	0.306	0.129	0.092	0.126	0.268
94	Hong Kong`HKG`Eastern Asia	0.299	0.275	0.113	0.294	0.279
95	Tanzania`TZA`Eastern Africa	0.294	0.278	0.144	0.254	0.268
96	Kyrgyzstan`KGZ`Central Asia	0.291	0.170	0.089	0.148	0.245
97	Kazakhstan`KAZ`Central Asia	0.289	0.171	0.084	0.179	0.219
98	Zambia`ZMB`Eastern Africa	0.287	0.248	0.207	0.235	0.220
99	Yemen`YEM`Western Asia	0.280	0.150	0.087	0.203	0.103
100	North Macedonia`MKD`Southern Europe	0.273	0.255	0.161	0.150	0.248
101	Taiwan`TWN`Eastern Asia	0.265	0.238	0.160	0.263	0.273
102	Cameroon`CMR`Middle Africa	0.263	0.137	0.152	0.086	0.160
103	Malaysia`MYS`South-eastern Asia	0.259	0.162	0.167	0.172	0.204
104	Rwanda`RWA`Eastern Africa	0.256	0.180	0.089	0.251	0.147
=105	Republic of the Congo`COG`Middle Africa	0.255	0.175	0.190	0.230	0.134
=105	Russia`RUS`Eastern Europe	0.255	0.129	0.154	0.259	0.249
=105	Uganda`UGA`Eastern Africa	0.255	0.189	0.160	0.255	0.199
108	South Africa`ZAF`Southern Africa	0.254	0.148	0.168	0.244	0.053
109	Madagascar`MDG`Eastern Africa	0.250	0.140	0.170	0.117	0.140
110	Central African Republic`CAF`Middle Africa	0.249	0.131	0.104	0.103	0.189
111	Croatia`HRV`Southern Europe	0.242	0.160	0.162	0.094	0.235
112	Togo`TGO`Western Africa	0.229	0.126	0.093	0.170	0.208
113	Uzbekistan`UZB`Central Asia	0.226	0.072	0.061	0.101	0.159
114	Fiji`FJI`Melanesia	0.224	0.148	0.155	0.082	0.185
=115	El Salvador`SLV`Central America	0.221	0.089	0.152	0.093	0.081
=115	Jordan`JOR`Western Asia	0.221	0.197	0.074	0.190	0.196
117	Seychelles`SYC`Eastern Africa	0.218	0.180	0.062	0.116	0.237
118	Egypt`EGY`Northern Africa	0.212	0.157	0.086	0.161	0.114
119	Mali`MLI`Western Africa	0.210	0.154	0.133	0.192	0.191
120	Thailand`THA`South-eastern Asia	0.209	0.158	0.076	0.176	0.125
121	Nigeria`NGA`Western Africa	0.204	0.100	0.165	0.075	0.133
=122	Ethiopia`ETH`Eastern Africa	0.203	0.076	0.062	0.105	0.143
=122	Kenya`KEN`Eastern Africa	0.203	0.132	0.118	0.190	0.147
=124	DR Congo`COD`Middle Africa	0.198	0.055	0.124	0.083	0.091
=124	Liberia`LBR`Western Africa	0.198	0.177	0.129	0.212	0.156
=126	Sierra Leone`SLE`Western Africa	0.197	0.060	0.123	0.139	0.088
=126	Tunisia`TUN`Northern Africa	0.197	0.093	0.121	0.161	0.207
128	Indonesia`IDN`South-eastern Asia	0.195	0.057	0.047	0.109	0.131
129	Burkina Faso`BFA`Western Africa	0.193	0.114	0.106	0.215	0.198
130	Azerbaijan`AZE`Western Asia	0.186	0.095	0.049	0.149	0.167
131	Djibouti`DJI`Eastern Africa	0.178	0.081	0.040	0.045	0.104
132	Turkmenistan`TKM`Central Asia	0.174	0.043	0.076	0.082	0.161
133	Morocco`MAR`Northern Africa	0.172	0.177	0.090	0.113	0.109
134	Chad`TCD`Middle Africa	0.168	0.057	0.103	0.067	0.076
135	Malawi`MWI`Eastern Africa	0.167	0.078	0.056	0.047	0.120
136	Serbia`SRB`Southern Europe	0.164	0.103	0.137	0.102	0.196
137	Equatorial Guinea`GNQ`Middle Africa	0.162	0.049	0.046	0.057	0.102
=138	Iran`IRN`Southern Asia	0.160	0.111	0.061	0.182	0.168
=138	Maldives`MDV`Southern Asia	0.160	0.058	0.059	0.030	0.151
=138	Mozambique`MOZ`Eastern Africa	0.160	0.132	0.078	0.100	0.153
141	Lesotho`LSO`Southern Africa	0.158	0.154	0.074	0.087	0.201
142	Vietnam`VNM`South-eastern Asia	0.155	0.075	0.168	0.169	0.195
143	Syria`SYR`Western Asia	0.145	0.037	0.054	0.021	0.128
=144	Guinea`GIN`Western Africa	0.142	0.074	0.124	0.106	0.121
=144	Somaliland`XSL`Eastern Africa	0.142	0.082	0.097	0.147	0.090
146	Cambodia`KHM`South-eastern Asia	0.139	0.028	0.043	0.028	0.059
147	Somalia`SOM`Eastern Africa	0.132	0.037	0.043	0.049	0.042
148	Mauritania`MRT`Western Africa	0.130	0.049	0.072	0.026	0.085
149	Eswatini`SWZ`Southern Africa	0.124	0.104	0.128	0.046	0.075
150	Kuwait`KWT`Western Asia	0.108	0.115	0.029	0.175	0.168
151	Ghana`GHA`Western Africa	0.105	0.097	0.096	0.079	0.148
152	Guinea-Bissau`GNB`Western Africa	0.101	0.048	0.068	0.044	0.098
153	Myanmar`MMR`South-eastern Asia	0.096	0.017	0.045	0.024	0.071
=154	Afghanistan`AFG`Southern Asia	0.094	0.041	0.025	0.035	0.096
=154	China`CHN`Eastern Asia	0.094	0.065	0.033	0.105	0.116
156	Burundi`BDI`Eastern Africa	0.089	0.084	0.081	0.189	0.123
157	North Korea`PRK`Eastern Asia	0.087	0.014	0.044	0.014	0.111
158	Sudan`SDN`Northern Africa	0.086	0.012	0.043	0.034	0.048
159	Laos`LAO`South-eastern Asia	0.085	0.087	0.090	0.027	0.108
=160	Angola`AGO`Middle Africa	0.083	0.055	0.031	0.028	0.054
=160	Eritrea`ERI`Eastern Africa	0.083	0.028	0.014	0.029	0.127
162	Iraq`IRQ`Western Asia	0.080	0.060	0.034	0.008	0.084
163	Timor-Leste`TLS`South-eastern Asia	0.077	—	—	0.010	0.076
164	Libya`LBY`Northern Africa	0.072	0.048	0.044	0.023	0.125
165	Cuba`CUB`Caribbean	0.071	0.033	0.042	0.051	0.224
166	Bhutan`BTN`Southern Asia	0.059	0.128	0.104	0.138	0.151
167	Bahrain`BHR`Western Asia	0.049	—	0.011	0.028	0.102
168	United Arab Emirates`ARE`Western Asia	0.022	0.055	0.014	0.117	0.083
169	Qatar`QAT`Western Asia	0.016	0.080	0.014	0.027	0.110
170	Oman`OMN`Western Asia	0.014	0.069	0.051	0.022	0.114
171	Saudi Arabia`SAU`Western Asia	0.013	0.037	0.019	0.030	0.109

02In 1991

At either end

The 5 countries at each end of the headline, then the highest and lowest on each other measure.

Highest

1Sweden0.912
2Denmark0.909
3Germany0.893
4Australiashared0.892
4Costa Ricashared0.892

Lowest

171Saudi Arabia0.013
170Oman0.014
169Qatar0.016
168United Arab Emirates0.022
167Bahrain0.049

A higher value is the better result. The middle country reads 0.336. “Shared” marks a value another country also holds.

Each measure’s ends

Liberal democracy (0–1)
HighestDenmark0.881
LowestSudan0.012
Middle country: 0.216
Participatory democracy (0–1)
HighestSwitzerland0.788
LowestBahrain0.011
Middle country: 0.191
Deliberative democracy (0–1)
HighestSweden0.887
LowestIraq0.008
Middle country: 0.244
Egalitarian democracy (0–1)
HighestSweden0.875
LowestSomalia0.042
Middle country: 0.245

031990 → 1991

Since 1990

What changed between 1990 and this one: who joined or left, and how far the headline moved.

+4 / −0countries joined / left
128values changed, of 167 in both
104 · 24rose · fell
39unchanged

Rose most

Cabo Verde0.338 → 0.662+0.324
São Tomé and Príncipe0.234 → 0.540+0.306
Benin0.221 → 0.462+0.241
Panama0.476 → 0.684+0.208
Slovenia0.621 → 0.815+0.194

Fell most

Suriname0.726 → 0.450−0.276
Estonia0.797 → 0.608−0.189
Thailand0.371 → 0.209−0.162
Serbia0.200 → 0.164−0.036
Laos0.116 → 0.085−0.031

+ Croatia

+ North Macedonia

+ Turkmenistan+ Somaliland

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 1991.
148 distinct values among 171
Values are stored exactly as published, to 3 decimals. 3 countries share 0.892. Countries sharing a value share a position too.
The position is ours
V-Dem Institute publishes values only; the order is this site’s.
3 empty cells
An empty cell means the publisher gave no figure. It is never a zero.

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

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Download vdem-democracy-1991-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 (1991). V-Dem Electoral Democracy Index, 1991 [data set], describing 1991. As held by Nations Inquiry, https://nationsinquiry.com/datasets/vdem-democracy/1991

0636 held

Other years

‹ The year before
V-Dem Electoral Democracy Index, 1990
167 countries
The year after ›
V-Dem Electoral Democracy Index, 1992
172 countries
All of them
V-Dem Electoral Democracy Index: every year
36 held, with the data dictionary, coverage and licence.
How it has moved, charted by country

07Questions