Data for 1996

V-Dem Electoral Democracy Index, 1996

Name: V-Dem Electoral Democracy Index, 1996
Creator: V-Dem Institute, University of Gothenburg
License: https://v-dem.net/data/the-v-dem-dataset/

1996, as V-Dem Institute’s 2026 release gives it · stored as published, never rewritten

V-Dem Electoral Democracy Index, 1996 covers 173 countries on 5 measures. Sweden is highest, at 0.912; Oman is lowest, at 0.015. The middle country reads 0.461. Against 1995, 107 values changed (70 up, 37 down), the same countries are covered.

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V-Dem Electoral Democracy Index · Data for 1996

HighestSweden

0.912

LowestOman

0.015

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

173countries
5measures per country
1996the year it describes
159distinct 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, 1996, 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 173 countries · select a heading to sort

V-Dem Electoral Democracy Index, 1996: every country, as published by V-Dem Institute, University of Gothenburg.
derived
1	Sweden`SWE`Northern Europe	0.912	0.879	0.689	0.881	0.874
2	Denmark`DNK`Northern Europe	0.908	0.880	0.734	0.863	0.869
=3	Costa Rica`CRI`Central America	0.893	0.840	0.630	0.832	0.780
=3	Germany`DEU`Western Europe	0.893	0.854	0.646	0.864	0.825
=3	Spain`ESP`Southern Europe	0.893	0.820	0.647	0.795	0.815
6	Czechia`CZE`Eastern Europe	0.892	0.817	0.578	0.778	0.808
7	Australia`AUS`Australia and New Zealand	0.891	0.849	0.637	0.803	0.798
8	Switzerland`CHE`Western Europe	0.890	0.839	0.792	0.855	0.819
9	Greece`GRC`Southern Europe	0.884	0.797	0.600	0.757	0.795
=10	Belgium`BEL`Western Europe	0.882	0.812	0.634	0.796	0.822
=10	Poland`POL`Eastern Europe	0.882	0.802	0.633	0.759	0.773
12	Norway`NOR`Northern Europe	0.881	0.847	0.661	0.853	0.840
13	New Zealand`NZL`Australia and New Zealand	0.879	0.820	0.709	0.727	0.753
14	Ireland`IRL`Northern Europe	0.875	0.793	0.625	0.721	0.777
15	France`FRA`Western Europe	0.874	0.802	0.652	0.805	0.764
16	Finland`FIN`Northern Europe	0.873	0.832	0.642	0.823	0.809
17	Uruguay`URY`South America	0.871	0.796	0.744	0.797	0.743
=18	Estonia`EST`Northern Europe	0.869	0.804	0.620	0.738	0.756
=18	Iceland`ISL`Northern Europe	0.869	0.783	0.615	0.742	0.791
=18	Portugal`PRT`Southern Europe	0.869	0.816	0.587	0.759	0.784
=18	United States`USA`Northern America	0.869	0.808	0.626	0.826	0.706
22	Luxembourg`LUX`Western Europe	0.867	0.784	0.587	0.795	0.814
23	Netherlands`NLD`Western Europe	0.861	0.812	0.584	0.786	0.784
24	Austria`AUT`Western Europe	0.856	0.780	0.635	0.772	0.759
25	Chile`CHL`South America	0.850	0.784	0.556	0.755	0.549
26	Slovenia`SVN`Southern Europe	0.849	0.767	0.659	0.754	0.763
27	Brazil`BRA`South America	0.848	0.711	0.585	0.725	0.569
28	Canada`CAN`Northern America	0.846	0.765	0.611	0.759	0.719
29	Hungary`HUN`Eastern Europe	0.844	0.756	0.608	0.659	0.720
30	Japan`JPN`Eastern Asia	0.838	0.759	0.552	0.738	0.755
31	Italy`ITA`Southern Europe	0.835	0.750	0.644	0.751	0.760
32	Argentina`ARG`South America	0.830	0.634	0.572	0.770	0.660
33	Lithuania`LTU`Northern Europe	0.824	0.753	0.615	0.700	0.713
34	United Kingdom`GBR`Northern Europe	0.814	0.751	0.563	0.685	0.652
35	Latvia`LVA`Northern Europe	0.788	0.674	0.510	0.583	0.631
36	Malta`MLT`Southern Europe	0.786	0.596	0.515	0.658	0.670
=37	Cabo Verde`CPV`Western Africa	0.776	0.690	0.458	0.646	0.608
=37	Cyprus`CYP`Western Asia	0.776	0.635	0.501	0.650	0.622
=37	Trinidad and Tobago`TTO`Caribbean	0.776	0.646	0.482	0.590	0.638
40	Israel`ISR`Western Asia	0.773	0.695	0.518	0.628	0.639
41	Suriname`SUR`South America	0.764	0.650	0.507	0.613	0.564
42	Barbados`BRB`Caribbean	0.762	0.647	0.324	0.588	0.620
43	Venezuela`VEN`South America	0.748	0.604	0.491	0.659	0.514
44	India`IND`Southern Asia	0.741	0.588	0.486	0.672	0.496
45	South Korea`KOR`Eastern Asia	0.736	0.618	0.480	0.628	0.607
46	Bolivia`BOL`South America	0.730	0.492	0.434	0.629	0.477
47	Mauritius`MUS`Eastern Africa	0.723	0.617	0.458	0.663	0.564
48	Panama`PAN`Central America	0.711	0.534	0.450	0.581	0.473
49	Slovakia`SVK`Eastern Europe	0.702	0.537	0.492	0.388	0.525
50	Mongolia`MNG`Eastern Asia	0.700	0.591	0.405	0.596	0.588
51	Bulgaria`BGR`Eastern Europe	0.698	0.597	0.441	0.613	0.568
52	Ecuador`ECU`South America	0.696	0.441	0.463	0.427	0.366
53	Botswana`BWA`Southern Africa	0.684	0.587	0.438	0.576	0.447
54	Nicaragua`NIC`Central America	0.676	0.450	0.418	0.558	0.366
55	Namibia`NAM`Southern Africa	0.670	0.553	0.414	0.556	0.435
56	South Africa`ZAF`Southern Africa	0.663	0.560	0.466	0.601	0.449
57	Senegal`SEN`Western Africa	0.638	0.471	0.364	0.539	0.439
58	Jamaica`JAM`Caribbean	0.628	0.490	0.390	0.498	0.472
59	São Tomé and Príncipe`STP`Middle Africa	0.626	0.500	0.401	0.420	0.428
60	Vanuatu`VUT`Melanesia	0.618	0.518	0.375	0.467	0.487
61	Benin`BEN`Western Africa	0.617	0.507	0.300	0.553	0.456
62	Mali`MLI`Western Africa	0.594	0.422	0.417	0.500	0.399
63	Moldova`MDA`Eastern Europe	0.591	0.411	0.323	0.293	0.416
64	Romania`ROU`Eastern Europe	0.573	0.408	0.367	0.372	0.457
65	Malawi`MWI`Eastern Africa	0.567	0.439	0.276	0.444	0.343
66	Honduras`HND`Central America	0.557	0.305	0.303	0.424	0.224
67	Philippines`PHL`South-eastern Asia	0.555	0.416	0.383	0.500	0.293
68	Colombia`COL`South America	0.554	0.426	0.382	0.334	0.333
69	Madagascar`MDG`Eastern Africa	0.548	0.351	0.340	0.263	0.262
70	Türkiye`TUR`Western Asia	0.547	0.382	0.330	0.420	0.331
=71	Dominican Republic`DOM`Caribbean	0.544	0.281	0.345	0.338	0.275
=71	Sri Lanka`LKA`Southern Asia	0.544	0.346	0.313	0.304	0.359
73	Ukraine`UKR`Eastern Europe	0.543	0.319	0.313	0.335	0.401
74	Papua New Guinea`PNG`Melanesia	0.537	0.413	0.317	0.327	0.299
75	Solomon Islands`SLB`Melanesia	0.532	0.413	0.298	0.313	0.317
76	Paraguay`PRY`South America	0.523	0.380	0.318	0.269	0.174
77	Fiji`FJI`Melanesia	0.522	0.382	0.279	0.401	0.331
78	Ghana`GHA`Western Africa	0.513	0.425	0.272	0.430	0.355
79	Mexico`MEX`Central America	0.512	0.293	0.296	0.351	0.252
80	Bangladesh`BGD`Southern Asia	0.506	0.271	0.231	0.199	0.209
81	Taiwan`TWN`Eastern Asia	0.505	0.389	0.333	0.435	0.435
=82	El Salvador`SLV`Central America	0.491	0.280	0.304	0.320	0.222
=82	Tanzania`TZA`Eastern Africa	0.491	0.403	0.314	0.367	0.361
84	Zambia`ZMB`Eastern Africa	0.490	0.384	0.320	0.423	0.321
85	Burkina Faso`BFA`Western Africa	0.484	0.256	0.224	0.357	0.336
86	North Macedonia`MKD`Southern Europe	0.463	0.357	0.277	0.217	0.341
87	Russia`RUS`Eastern Europe	0.461	0.290	0.292	0.375	0.313
88	Mozambique`MOZ`Eastern Africa	0.457	0.304	0.193	0.285	0.291
89	Guatemala`GTM`Central America	0.454	0.261	0.311	0.310	0.194
90	Republic of the Congo`COG`Middle Africa	0.450	0.297	0.291	0.332	0.208
91	Guyana`GUY`South America	0.444	0.298	0.232	0.202	0.315
92	Belarus`BLR`Eastern Europe	0.443	0.213	0.230	0.177	0.381
93	Haiti`HTI`Caribbean	0.427	0.275	0.243	0.290	0.149
94	Armenia`ARM`Western Asia	0.419	0.235	0.214	0.299	0.364
95	Croatia`HRV`Southern Europe	0.406	0.242	0.233	0.159	0.318
96	Nepal`NPL`Southern Asia	0.398	0.312	0.223	0.335	0.286
97	Côte d’Ivoire`CIV`Western Africa	0.397	0.239	0.251	0.241	0.241
98	Thailand`THA`South-eastern Asia	0.394	0.278	0.187	0.372	0.221
99	Albania`ALB`Southern Europe	0.387	0.321	0.216	0.268	0.287
100	Georgia`GEO`Western Asia	0.382	0.208	0.122	0.216	0.304
101	Hong Kong`HKG`Eastern Asia	0.377	0.320	0.139	0.369	0.327
102	Pakistan`PAK`Southern Asia	0.370	0.201	0.212	0.182	0.133
103	Cambodia`KHM`South-eastern Asia	0.365	0.140	0.129	0.228	0.132
=104	Peru`PER`South America	0.362	0.129	0.214	0.183	0.181
=104	Singapore`SGP`South-eastern Asia	0.362	0.299	0.095	0.302	0.320
106	Seychelles`SYC`Eastern Africa	0.360	0.255	0.129	0.267	0.320
107	Guinea-Bissau`GNB`Western Africa	0.358	0.203	0.145	0.185	0.185
108	Central African Republic`CAF`Middle Africa	0.352	0.220	0.154	0.252	0.210
109	Kenya`KEN`Eastern Africa	0.337	0.211	0.202	0.319	0.209
110	Algeria`DZA`Northern Africa	0.332	0.157	0.128	0.287	0.269
111	Gabon`GAB`Middle Africa	0.329	0.198	0.230	0.282	0.213
112	Togo`TGO`Western Africa	0.328	0.167	0.138	0.216	0.256
113	Comoros`COM`Eastern Africa	0.317	0.142	0.205	0.234	0.234
114	Lesotho`LSO`Southern Africa	0.314	0.258	0.142	0.217	0.292
115	Zimbabwe`ZWE`Eastern Africa	0.313	0.228	0.212	0.260	0.194
116	Lebanon`LBN`Western Asia	0.312	0.188	0.116	0.221	0.218
117	Mauritania`MRT`Western Africa	0.308	0.135	0.118	0.157	0.146
118	Uganda`UGA`Eastern Africa	0.304	0.241	0.209	0.294	0.214
119	Yemen`YEM`Western Asia	0.299	0.132	0.081	0.193	0.108
120	Kyrgyzstan`KGZ`Central Asia	0.295	0.179	0.115	0.197	0.257
121	Serbia`SRB`Southern Europe	0.293	0.185	0.183	0.144	0.248
122	Niger`NER`Western Africa	0.292	0.182	0.160	0.243	0.244
123	Cameroon`CMR`Middle Africa	0.287	0.144	0.146	0.125	0.168
=124	Kazakhstan`KAZ`Central Asia	0.283	0.132	0.102	0.137	0.203
=124	Kuwait`KWT`Western Asia	0.283	0.268	0.092	0.286	0.224
126	Sierra Leone`SLE`Western Africa	0.281	0.120	0.168	0.264	0.142
127	Bosnia and Herzegovina`BIH`Southern Europe	0.268	0.141	0.178	0.211	0.227
128	Guinea`GIN`Western Africa	0.259	0.109	0.152	0.105	0.151
129	Malaysia`MYS`South-eastern Asia	0.257	0.161	0.166	0.177	0.203
130	Ethiopia`ETH`Eastern Africa	0.245	0.111	0.094	0.152	0.156
131	Djibouti`DJI`Eastern Africa	0.240	0.110	0.115	0.124	0.153
132	Azerbaijan`AZE`Western Asia	0.235	0.083	0.075	0.082	0.159
133	Jordan`JOR`Western Asia	0.227	0.196	0.083	0.188	0.199
134	Burundi`BDI`Eastern Africa	0.224	0.155	0.149	0.238	0.182
135	Chad`TCD`Middle Africa	0.221	0.082	0.117	0.103	0.089
136	Egypt`EGY`Northern Africa	0.215	0.156	0.083	0.161	0.115
137	Indonesia`IDN`South-eastern Asia	0.193	0.051	0.046	0.115	0.130
138	Morocco`MAR`Northern Africa	0.192	0.196	0.094	0.118	0.119
139	Nigeria`NGA`Western Africa	0.189	0.094	0.161	0.059	0.127
140	Tunisia`TUN`Northern Africa	0.188	0.091	0.118	0.146	0.204
141	Equatorial Guinea`GNQ`Middle Africa	0.182	0.052	0.051	0.061	0.111
142	Iran`IRN`Southern Asia	0.174	0.123	0.058	0.189	0.171
143	Tajikistan`TJK`Central Asia	0.173	0.056	0.071	0.088	0.133
=144	DR Congo`COD`Middle Africa	0.170	0.036	0.122	0.105	0.087
=144	Somaliland`XSL`Eastern Africa	0.170	0.127	0.102	0.149	0.098
146	Uzbekistan`UZB`Central Asia	0.163	0.041	0.056	0.078	0.127
147	Maldives`MDV`Southern Asia	0.160	0.058	0.068	0.030	0.151
148	Somalia`SOM`Eastern Africa	0.158	0.027	0.069	0.067	0.043
149	Angola`AGO`Middle Africa	0.155	0.076	0.062	0.052	0.063
150	Vietnam`VNM`South-eastern Asia	0.153	0.082	0.168	0.166	0.198
151	Liberia`LBR`Western Africa	0.150	0.117	0.120	0.187	0.141
152	Turkmenistan`TKM`Central Asia	0.147	0.028	0.069	0.025	0.101
153	Iraq`IRQ`Western Asia	0.146	0.070	0.045	0.015	0.094
154	Syria`SYR`Western Asia	0.145	0.037	0.053	0.021	0.127
155	Sudan`SDN`Northern Africa	0.136	0.024	0.053	0.041	0.055
156	Gambia`GMB`Western Africa	0.130	0.080	0.118	0.055	0.140
157	Eswatini`SWZ`Southern Africa	0.115	0.098	0.126	0.074	0.070
158	Cuba`CUB`Caribbean	0.108	0.038	0.043	0.055	0.232
159	Rwanda`RWA`Eastern Africa	0.107	0.120	0.107	0.101	0.164
=160	China`CHN`Eastern Asia	0.102	0.068	0.039	0.131	0.112
=160	Eritrea`ERI`Eastern Africa	0.102	0.035	0.016	0.055	0.155
162	Myanmar`MMR`South-eastern Asia	0.096	0.017	0.043	0.024	0.071
163	Laos`LAO`South-eastern Asia	0.085	0.087	0.091	0.031	0.109
164	North Korea`PRK`Eastern Asia	0.084	0.014	0.043	0.011	0.084
165	Timor-Leste`TLS`South-eastern Asia	0.077	—	—	0.010	0.076
166	Afghanistan`AFG`Southern Asia	0.076	0.019	0.013	0.009	0.036
167	Libya`LBY`Northern Africa	0.072	0.048	0.044	0.046	0.125
168	Bhutan`BTN`Southern Asia	0.064	0.131	0.105	0.139	0.162
169	Bahrain`BHR`Western Asia	0.049	—	0.011	0.028	0.102
170	United Arab Emirates`ARE`Western Asia	0.027	0.070	0.014	0.117	0.094
171	Qatar`QAT`Western Asia	0.018	0.087	0.014	0.044	0.116
172	Saudi Arabia`SAU`Western Asia	0.016	0.039	0.019	0.030	0.109
173	Oman`OMN`Western Asia	0.015	0.086	0.050	0.030	0.135

02In 1996

At either end

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

Highest

1Sweden0.912
2Denmark0.908
3Costa Ricashared0.893
3Germanyshared0.893
3Spainshared0.893

Lowest

173Oman0.015
172Saudi Arabia0.016
171Qatar0.018
170United Arab Emirates0.027
169Bahrain0.049

A higher value is the better result. The middle country reads 0.461. “Shared” marks a value another country also holds.

Each measure’s ends

Liberal democracy (0–1)
HighestDenmark0.880
LowestNorth Korea0.014
Middle country: 0.299
Participatory democracy (0–1)
HighestSwitzerland0.792
LowestBahrain0.011
Middle country: 0.274
Deliberative democracy (0–1)
HighestSweden0.881
LowestAfghanistan0.009
Middle country: 0.310
Egalitarian democracy (0–1)
HighestSweden0.874
LowestAfghanistan0.036
Middle country: 0.299

031995 → 1996

Since 1995

What changed between 1995 and this one: who joined or left, and how far the headline moved.

+0 / −0countries joined / left
107values changed, of 173 in both
70 · 37rose · fell
66unchanged

Rose most

Taiwan0.324 → 0.505+0.181
Algeria0.186 → 0.332+0.146
Côte d’Ivoire0.263 → 0.397+0.134
Sierra Leone0.159 → 0.281+0.122
Dominican Republic0.444 → 0.544+0.100

Fell most

Niger0.532 → 0.292−0.240
Comoros0.400 → 0.317−0.083
Armenia0.489 → 0.419−0.070
Belarus0.501 → 0.443−0.058
Albania0.427 → 0.387−0.040

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 1996.
159 distinct values among 173
Values are stored exactly as published, to 3 decimals. 4 countries share 0.869. 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

.csv
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Opens with 11 lines of source notes; the table starts on row 13.
Download vdem-democracy-1996-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 (1996). V-Dem Electoral Democracy Index, 1996 [data set], describing 1996. As held by Nations Inquiry, https://nationsinquiry.com/datasets/vdem-democracy/1996

0636 held

Other years

‹ The year before
V-Dem Electoral Democracy Index, 1995
173 countries
The year after ›
V-Dem Electoral Democracy Index, 1997
173 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