Data for 1997

V-Dem Electoral Democracy Index, 1997

Name: V-Dem Electoral Democracy Index, 1997
Creator: V-Dem Institute, University of Gothenburg
License: https://v-dem.net/data/the-v-dem-dataset/

1997, as V-Dem Institute’s 2026 release gives it · stored as published, never rewritten

V-Dem Electoral Democracy Index, 1997 covers 173 countries on 5 measures. Sweden is highest, at 0.912; Oman is lowest, at 0.015. The middle country reads 0.478. Against 1996, 108 values changed (65 up, 43 down), the same countries are covered.

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V-Dem Electoral Democracy Index · Data for 1997

HighestSweden

0.912

LowestOman

0.015

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

173countries
5measures per country
1997the year it describes
161distinct 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, 1997, 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, 1997: 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	0.730	0.863	0.869
3	Spain`ESP`Southern Europe	0.894	0.820	0.643	0.795	0.815
=4	Costa Rica`CRI`Central America	0.893	0.835	0.630	0.832	0.780
=4	Germany`DEU`Western Europe	0.893	0.854	0.646	0.864	0.825
6	Czechia`CZE`Eastern Europe	0.891	0.816	0.577	0.785	0.806
7	Switzerland`CHE`Western Europe	0.890	0.839	0.793	0.855	0.819
8	Greece`GRC`Southern Europe	0.883	0.798	0.600	0.756	0.799
=9	Australia`AUS`Australia and New Zealand	0.882	0.841	0.624	0.795	0.790
=9	Belgium`BEL`Western Europe	0.882	0.812	0.634	0.796	0.822
11	Norway`NOR`Northern Europe	0.881	0.847	0.662	0.853	0.841
12	New Zealand`NZL`Australia and New Zealand	0.880	0.825	0.709	0.731	0.754
13	Ireland`IRL`Northern Europe	0.878	0.802	0.628	0.723	0.780
14	France`FRA`Western Europe	0.874	0.800	0.648	0.803	0.763
15	Finland`FIN`Northern Europe	0.873	0.832	0.642	0.823	0.809
=16	Poland`POL`Eastern Europe	0.871	0.792	0.631	0.741	0.763
=16	United States`USA`Northern America	0.871	0.811	0.628	0.827	0.708
=16	Uruguay`URY`South America	0.871	0.795	0.741	0.797	0.743
=19	Estonia`EST`Northern Europe	0.869	0.806	0.617	0.738	0.756
=19	Portugal`PRT`Southern Europe	0.869	0.816	0.587	0.759	0.784
21	Iceland`ISL`Northern Europe	0.868	0.783	0.615	0.742	0.791
22	Luxembourg`LUX`Western Europe	0.867	0.784	0.587	0.795	0.814
23	Austria`AUT`Western Europe	0.856	0.780	0.635	0.772	0.760
24	Netherlands`NLD`Western Europe	0.854	0.805	0.579	0.781	0.779
25	Chile`CHL`South America	0.850	0.784	0.556	0.755	0.549
26	Brazil`BRA`South America	0.848	0.711	0.585	0.725	0.569
27	Hungary`HUN`Eastern Europe	0.844	0.757	0.638	0.659	0.720
28	Italy`ITA`Southern Europe	0.843	0.758	0.652	0.782	0.770
29	Slovenia`SVN`Southern Europe	0.842	0.762	0.652	0.748	0.757
30	Canada`CAN`Northern America	0.840	0.760	0.601	0.755	0.715
31	Japan`JPN`Eastern Asia	0.837	0.757	0.554	0.737	0.755
32	Argentina`ARG`South America	0.829	0.634	0.572	0.770	0.656
33	Lithuania`LTU`Northern Europe	0.827	0.758	0.613	0.703	0.726
34	United Kingdom`GBR`Northern Europe	0.811	0.746	0.561	0.697	0.671
35	Latvia`LVA`Northern Europe	0.808	0.694	0.523	0.599	0.654
36	Malta`MLT`Southern Europe	0.788	0.599	0.516	0.662	0.673
=37	Cabo Verde`CPV`Western Africa	0.778	0.692	0.460	0.648	0.604
=37	Cyprus`CYP`Western Asia	0.778	0.636	0.501	0.653	0.623
39	Trinidad and Tobago`TTO`Caribbean	0.776	0.646	0.482	0.590	0.638
40	Israel`ISR`Western Asia	0.774	0.696	0.520	0.634	0.640
41	Suriname`SUR`South America	0.769	0.652	0.509	0.617	0.568
42	Barbados`BRB`Caribbean	0.762	0.647	0.324	0.588	0.620
43	Venezuela`VEN`South America	0.746	0.603	0.492	0.657	0.516
44	South Korea`KOR`Eastern Asia	0.743	0.638	0.483	0.634	0.613
45	India`IND`Southern Asia	0.742	0.591	0.487	0.672	0.497
46	Bolivia`BOL`South America	0.735	0.518	0.435	0.634	0.480
47	Mauritius`MUS`Eastern Africa	0.723	0.617	0.458	0.663	0.564
48	Bulgaria`BGR`Eastern Europe	0.712	0.609	0.450	0.639	0.575
49	Panama`PAN`Central America	0.711	0.534	0.447	0.581	0.462
50	Mongolia`MNG`Eastern Asia	0.707	0.598	0.411	0.604	0.600
51	Slovakia`SVK`Eastern Europe	0.702	0.540	0.520	0.388	0.525
52	Botswana`BWA`Southern Africa	0.698	0.601	0.455	0.587	0.454
53	Ecuador`ECU`South America	0.695	0.450	0.461	0.448	0.369
54	Namibia`NAM`Southern Africa	0.670	0.553	0.414	0.556	0.435
55	South Africa`ZAF`Southern Africa	0.663	0.560	0.464	0.601	0.445
56	Taiwan`TWN`Eastern Asia	0.643	0.483	0.414	0.530	0.528
57	Jamaica`JAM`Caribbean	0.642	0.499	0.401	0.507	0.479
58	Senegal`SEN`Western Africa	0.638	0.472	0.364	0.539	0.439
59	Nicaragua`NIC`Central America	0.632	0.409	0.388	0.495	0.338
=60	Dominican Republic`DOM`Caribbean	0.619	0.357	0.395	0.465	0.318
=60	Romania`ROU`Eastern Europe	0.619	0.438	0.393	0.404	0.492
=62	Benin`BEN`Western Africa	0.618	0.500	0.293	0.554	0.456
=62	Vanuatu`VUT`Melanesia	0.618	0.518	0.375	0.467	0.487
64	São Tomé and Príncipe`STP`Middle Africa	0.614	0.492	0.400	0.413	0.421
65	Ghana`GHA`Western Africa	0.597	0.505	0.319	0.490	0.410
66	Moldova`MDA`Eastern Europe	0.592	0.412	0.332	0.294	0.417
67	Bosnia and Herzegovina`BIH`Southern Europe	0.584	0.340	0.323	0.404	0.396
68	Malawi`MWI`Eastern Africa	0.567	0.439	0.276	0.444	0.343
69	Honduras`HND`Central America	0.557	0.307	0.303	0.424	0.224
=70	Mexico`MEX`Central America	0.555	0.346	0.329	0.380	0.275
=70	Philippines`PHL`South-eastern Asia	0.555	0.416	0.382	0.500	0.293
72	Colombia`COL`South America	0.554	0.429	0.380	0.334	0.333
73	Mali`MLI`Western Africa	0.550	0.392	0.387	0.457	0.371
74	Türkiye`TUR`Western Asia	0.545	0.391	0.324	0.418	0.331
75	Sri Lanka`LKA`Southern Asia	0.544	0.346	0.311	0.304	0.359
76	Fiji`FJI`Melanesia	0.543	0.404	0.290	0.417	0.348
77	Papua New Guinea`PNG`Melanesia	0.538	0.414	0.317	0.327	0.299
78	Paraguay`PRY`South America	0.527	0.383	0.321	0.270	0.175
79	Solomon Islands`SLB`Melanesia	0.526	0.409	0.293	0.311	0.313
80	Ukraine`UKR`Eastern Europe	0.523	0.299	0.283	0.336	0.388
81	Bangladesh`BGD`Southern Asia	0.512	0.275	0.237	0.201	0.213
82	Madagascar`MDG`Eastern Africa	0.510	0.279	0.319	0.245	0.244
83	El Salvador`SLV`Central America	0.493	0.282	0.304	0.320	0.223
84	Tanzania`TZA`Eastern Africa	0.491	0.403	0.314	0.367	0.361
85	Guatemala`GTM`Central America	0.489	0.282	0.312	0.358	0.207
86	Burkina Faso`BFA`Western Africa	0.486	0.257	0.248	0.359	0.336
87	Zambia`ZMB`Eastern Africa	0.478	0.374	0.312	0.416	0.315
88	Thailand`THA`South-eastern Asia	0.476	0.348	0.222	0.441	0.260
89	North Macedonia`MKD`Southern Europe	0.471	0.362	0.281	0.220	0.341
90	Mozambique`MOZ`Eastern Africa	0.457	0.301	0.193	0.285	0.291
91	Russia`RUS`Eastern Europe	0.456	0.284	0.289	0.350	0.311
92	Guyana`GUY`South America	0.452	0.304	0.235	0.205	0.307
93	Haiti`HTI`Caribbean	0.441	0.287	0.253	0.298	0.154
94	Comoros`COM`Eastern Africa	0.429	0.208	0.254	0.286	0.285
95	Croatia`HRV`Southern Europe	0.422	0.259	0.246	0.166	0.338
96	Côte d’Ivoire`CIV`Western Africa	0.396	0.239	0.250	0.241	0.240
97	Nepal`NPL`Southern Asia	0.395	0.311	0.222	0.332	0.284
98	Armenia`ARM`Western Asia	0.392	0.224	0.200	0.269	0.346
99	Pakistan`PAK`Southern Asia	0.386	0.196	0.208	0.187	0.139
100	Niger`NER`Western Africa	0.385	0.228	0.182	0.277	0.288
101	Georgia`GEO`Western Asia	0.378	0.207	0.120	0.224	0.302
102	Singapore`SGP`South-eastern Asia	0.375	0.304	0.097	0.309	0.328
103	Albania`ALB`Southern Europe	0.371	0.311	0.221	0.271	0.286
104	Belarus`BLR`Eastern Europe	0.369	0.139	0.149	0.130	0.333
105	Hong Kong`HKG`Eastern Asia	0.368	0.322	0.146	0.342	0.327
=106	Cambodia`KHM`South-eastern Asia	0.365	0.137	0.129	0.222	0.132
=106	Seychelles`SYC`Eastern Africa	0.365	0.258	0.130	0.269	0.323
108	Peru`PER`South America	0.362	0.125	0.210	0.183	0.181
109	Guinea-Bissau`GNB`Western Africa	0.358	0.201	0.145	0.185	0.185
110	Central African Republic`CAF`Middle Africa	0.352	0.220	0.162	0.245	0.210
111	Gabon`GAB`Middle Africa	0.338	0.203	0.235	0.286	0.218
112	Kenya`KEN`Eastern Africa	0.336	0.209	0.201	0.318	0.208
113	Togo`TGO`Western Africa	0.328	0.167	0.136	0.216	0.256
114	Algeria`DZA`Northern Africa	0.319	0.153	0.125	0.282	0.263
115	Lesotho`LSO`Southern Africa	0.314	0.258	0.163	0.217	0.292
116	Lebanon`LBN`Western Asia	0.312	0.188	0.116	0.221	0.217
117	Zimbabwe`ZWE`Eastern Africa	0.309	0.229	0.211	0.259	0.189
118	Uganda`UGA`Eastern Africa	0.305	0.239	0.204	0.279	0.214
119	Mauritania`MRT`Western Africa	0.300	0.132	0.115	0.153	0.144
120	Serbia`SRB`Southern Europe	0.299	0.188	0.181	0.145	0.251
121	Kazakhstan`KAZ`Central Asia	0.295	0.136	0.105	0.112	0.202
122	Sierra Leone`SLE`Western Africa	0.292	0.094	0.180	0.271	0.149
123	Cameroon`CMR`Middle Africa	0.289	0.144	0.147	0.126	0.168
124	Kyrgyzstan`KGZ`Central Asia	0.287	0.172	0.112	0.192	0.251
125	Kuwait`KWT`Western Asia	0.286	0.269	0.093	0.288	0.225
126	Yemen`YEM`Western Asia	0.279	0.137	0.077	0.171	0.102
127	Chad`TCD`Middle Africa	0.278	0.096	0.133	0.119	0.103
128	Guinea`GIN`Western Africa	0.262	0.107	0.152	0.164	0.151
129	Malaysia`MYS`South-eastern Asia	0.257	0.161	0.166	0.177	0.203
130	Gambia`GMB`Western Africa	0.246	0.126	0.147	0.081	0.172
131	Ethiopia`ETH`Eastern Africa	0.245	0.111	0.094	0.152	0.156
132	Republic of the Congo`COG`Middle Africa	0.243	0.066	0.142	0.158	0.089
133	Liberia`LBR`Western Africa	0.241	0.129	0.136	0.205	0.156
134	Djibouti`DJI`Eastern Africa	0.240	0.110	0.114	0.124	0.153
135	Azerbaijan`AZE`Western Asia	0.237	0.084	0.075	0.083	0.160
136	Jordan`JOR`Western Asia	0.224	0.195	0.082	0.187	0.198
137	Iran`IRN`Southern Asia	0.218	0.149	0.072	0.254	0.191
138	Egypt`EGY`Northern Africa	0.213	0.155	0.081	0.161	0.106
139	Morocco`MAR`Northern Africa	0.201	0.193	0.105	0.123	0.127
=140	Indonesia`IDN`South-eastern Asia	0.200	0.052	0.047	0.119	0.130
=140	Nigeria`NGA`Western Africa	0.200	0.097	0.165	0.061	0.130
=142	Burundi`BDI`Eastern Africa	0.188	0.149	0.136	0.206	0.170
=142	Tunisia`TUN`Northern Africa	0.188	0.091	0.118	0.146	0.204
144	Tajikistan`TJK`Central Asia	0.182	0.058	0.079	0.098	0.138
145	Equatorial Guinea`GNQ`Middle Africa	0.180	0.051	0.050	0.060	0.111
146	Somaliland`XSL`Eastern Africa	0.173	0.131	0.111	0.150	0.099
147	Uzbekistan`UZB`Central Asia	0.163	0.040	0.056	0.078	0.125
148	Maldives`MDV`Southern Asia	0.160	0.058	0.068	0.032	0.151
149	Somalia`SOM`Eastern Africa	0.158	0.027	0.069	0.067	0.043
150	Angola`AGO`Middle Africa	0.155	0.076	0.062	0.052	0.063
151	Vietnam`VNM`South-eastern Asia	0.153	0.082	0.168	0.166	0.197
152	Sudan`SDN`Northern Africa	0.151	0.026	0.054	0.043	0.058
153	Iraq`IRQ`Western Asia	0.146	0.070	0.045	0.015	0.094
154	Syria`SYR`Western Asia	0.145	0.037	0.051	0.021	0.127
155	Turkmenistan`TKM`Central Asia	0.143	0.024	0.069	0.020	0.099
156	Eritrea`ERI`Eastern Africa	0.131	0.039	0.019	0.059	0.162
157	DR Congo`COD`Middle Africa	0.126	0.026	0.108	0.047	0.074
158	Eswatini`SWZ`Southern Africa	0.115	0.098	0.126	0.074	0.070
159	Cuba`CUB`Caribbean	0.108	0.038	0.042	0.055	0.232
160	Rwanda`RWA`Eastern Africa	0.107	0.122	0.107	0.101	0.164
161	China`CHN`Eastern Asia	0.102	0.068	0.038	0.131	0.112
162	Myanmar`MMR`South-eastern Asia	0.096	0.017	0.043	0.024	0.071
163	Laos`LAO`South-eastern Asia	0.086	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	0.073	0.022	0.013	0.007	0.038
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	0.163
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	0.045	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 1997

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
3Spain0.894
4Costa Ricashared0.893
4Germanyshared0.893

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 0.478. “Shared” marks a value another country also holds.

Each measure’s ends

Liberal democracy (0–1)
HighestDenmark0.880
LowestNorth Korea0.014
Middle country: 0.307
Participatory democracy (0–1)
HighestSwitzerland0.793
LowestBahrain0.011
Middle country: 0.279
Deliberative democracy (0–1)
HighestSweden0.881
LowestAfghanistan0.007
Middle country: 0.311
Egalitarian democracy (0–1)
HighestSweden0.874
LowestAfghanistan0.038
Middle country: 0.307

031996 → 1997

Since 1996

What changed between 1996 and this one: who joined or left, and how far the headline moved.

+0 / −0countries joined / left
108values changed, of 173 in both
65 · 43rose · fell
65unchanged

Rose most

Bosnia and Herzegovina0.268 → 0.584+0.316
Taiwan0.505 → 0.643+0.138
Gambia0.130 → 0.246+0.116
Comoros0.317 → 0.429+0.112
Niger0.292 → 0.385+0.093

Fell most

Republic of the Congo0.450 → 0.243−0.207
Belarus0.443 → 0.369−0.074
Nicaragua0.676 → 0.632−0.044
DR Congo0.170 → 0.126−0.044
Mali0.594 → 0.550−0.044

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 1997.
161 distinct values among 173
Values are stored exactly as published, to 3 decimals. 3 countries share 0.871. 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-1997-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 (1997). V-Dem Electoral Democracy Index, 1997 [data set], describing 1997. As held by Nations Inquiry, https://nationsinquiry.com/datasets/vdem-democracy/1997

0636 held

Other years

‹ The year before
V-Dem Electoral Democracy Index, 1996
173 countries
The year after ›
V-Dem Electoral Democracy Index, 1998
174 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