Data for 1998

V-Dem Electoral Democracy Index, 1998

Name: V-Dem Electoral Democracy Index, 1998
Creator: V-Dem Institute, University of Gothenburg
License: https://v-dem.net/data/the-v-dem-dataset/

1998, as V-Dem Institute’s 2026 release gives it · stored as published, never rewritten

V-Dem Electoral Democracy Index, 1998 covers 174 countries on 5 measures. Sweden is highest, at 0.912; Saudi Arabia is lowest, at 0.016. The middle country reads 0.490. Against 1997, 105 values changed (62 up, 43 down), 1 country joined.

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V-Dem Electoral Democracy Index · Data for 1998

HighestSweden

0.912

LowestSaudi Arabia

0.016

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

174countries
5measures per country
1998the year it describes
155distinct 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, 1998, 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 174 countries · select a heading to sort

V-Dem Electoral Democracy Index, 1998: 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	0.870
2	Denmark`DNK`Northern Europe	0.906	0.879	0.733	0.861	0.867
=3	Germany`DEU`Western Europe	0.894	0.856	0.649	0.865	0.827
=3	Spain`ESP`Southern Europe	0.894	0.820	0.639	0.795	0.815
5	Costa Rica`CRI`Central America	0.893	0.841	0.629	0.833	0.780
6	Switzerland`CHE`Western Europe	0.890	0.839	0.793	0.855	0.821
7	Czechia`CZE`Eastern Europe	0.884	0.808	0.572	0.801	0.797
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	0.620	0.795	0.790
=9	Belgium`BEL`Western Europe	0.882	0.813	0.634	0.796	0.822
=9	Norway`NOR`Northern Europe	0.882	0.848	0.662	0.854	0.842
=12	Ireland`IRL`Northern Europe	0.880	0.804	0.630	0.724	0.782
=12	New Zealand`NZL`Australia and New Zealand	0.880	0.825	0.707	0.731	0.761
14	Uruguay`URY`South America	0.877	0.804	0.745	0.804	0.751
15	Poland`POL`Eastern Europe	0.876	0.796	0.643	0.744	0.767
=16	Finland`FIN`Northern Europe	0.873	0.832	0.642	0.823	0.809
=16	France`FRA`Western Europe	0.873	0.798	0.645	0.802	0.766
18	United States`USA`Northern America	0.871	0.810	0.627	0.826	0.708
=19	Estonia`EST`Northern Europe	0.869	0.805	0.614	0.738	0.765
=19	Portugal`PRT`Southern Europe	0.869	0.816	0.617	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	0.634	0.771	0.759
24	Chile`CHL`South America	0.851	0.786	0.556	0.765	0.552
25	Brazil`BRA`South America	0.849	0.711	0.591	0.726	0.574
26	Netherlands`NLD`Western Europe	0.847	0.799	0.575	0.774	0.771
27	Italy`ITA`Southern Europe	0.843	0.758	0.652	0.782	0.770
28	Slovenia`SVN`Southern Europe	0.842	0.764	0.652	0.756	0.757
29	Hungary`HUN`Eastern Europe	0.840	0.754	0.632	0.657	0.711
30	Japan`JPN`Eastern Asia	0.837	0.757	0.554	0.737	0.755
31	Canada`CAN`Northern America	0.836	0.756	0.595	0.750	0.712
32	Argentina`ARG`South America	0.828	0.634	0.571	0.769	0.656
33	Lithuania`LTU`Northern Europe	0.824	0.754	0.607	0.703	0.728
34	United Kingdom`GBR`Northern Europe	0.814	0.749	0.561	0.698	0.680
35	Latvia`LVA`Northern Europe	0.809	0.696	0.558	0.599	0.655
36	South Korea`KOR`Eastern Asia	0.804	0.729	0.567	0.729	0.696
37	Malta`MLT`Southern Europe	0.787	0.598	0.515	0.661	0.671
38	Cabo Verde`CPV`Western Africa	0.778	0.692	0.460	0.648	0.604
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	0.507	0.617	0.568
=42	Cyprus`CYP`Western Asia	0.765	0.629	0.493	0.642	0.613
=42	Slovakia`SVK`Eastern Europe	0.765	0.626	0.579	0.490	0.577
44	Barbados`BRB`Caribbean	0.762	0.647	0.324	0.588	0.620
45	India`IND`Southern Asia	0.746	0.593	0.490	0.678	0.499
46	Bolivia`BOL`South America	0.735	0.518	0.436	0.587	0.480
47	Venezuela`VEN`South America	0.730	0.575	0.474	0.640	0.496
48	Mauritius`MUS`Eastern Africa	0.723	0.617	0.458	0.663	0.564
=49	Bulgaria`BGR`Eastern Europe	0.707	0.609	0.442	0.632	0.566
=49	Mongolia`MNG`Eastern Asia	0.707	0.600	0.401	0.604	0.600
51	Botswana`BWA`Southern Africa	0.702	0.604	0.466	0.599	0.457
52	Panama`PAN`Central America	0.699	0.524	0.441	0.572	0.453
53	Ecuador`ECU`South America	0.696	0.459	0.481	0.485	0.388
=54	Jamaica`JAM`Caribbean	0.670	0.522	0.420	0.530	0.503
=54	Namibia`NAM`Southern Africa	0.670	0.553	0.414	0.556	0.435
56	South Africa`ZAF`Southern Africa	0.668	0.564	0.458	0.597	0.444
57	Taiwan`TWN`Eastern Asia	0.659	0.493	0.433	0.546	0.547
58	Senegal`SEN`Western Africa	0.641	0.474	0.365	0.541	0.440
59	Dominican Republic`DOM`Caribbean	0.639	0.372	0.413	0.482	0.330
60	Nicaragua`NIC`Central America	0.632	0.409	0.388	0.478	0.309
61	Romania`ROU`Eastern Europe	0.619	0.438	0.391	0.404	0.489
=62	Benin`BEN`Western Africa	0.618	0.500	0.291	0.554	0.456
=62	São Tomé and Príncipe`STP`Middle Africa	0.618	0.495	0.400	0.415	0.424
64	Vanuatu`VUT`Melanesia	0.617	0.517	0.375	0.467	0.487
=65	Bosnia and Herzegovina`BIH`Southern Europe	0.600	0.350	0.338	0.376	0.395
=65	Mexico`MEX`Central America	0.600	0.378	0.355	0.409	0.299
67	Ghana`GHA`Western Africa	0.597	0.505	0.317	0.490	0.410
68	Moldova`MDA`Eastern Europe	0.582	0.429	0.322	0.335	0.411
69	Philippines`PHL`South-eastern Asia	0.579	0.428	0.397	0.520	0.305
70	Malawi`MWI`Eastern Africa	0.567	0.439	0.276	0.444	0.343
71	Honduras`HND`Central America	0.555	0.309	0.302	0.422	0.224
72	Colombia`COL`South America	0.546	0.423	0.372	0.344	0.330
73	Türkiye`TUR`Western Asia	0.544	0.389	0.319	0.418	0.343
74	Fiji`FJI`Melanesia	0.543	0.404	0.290	0.417	0.348
75	Papua New Guinea`PNG`Melanesia	0.538	0.415	0.317	0.326	0.300
76	Paraguay`PRY`South America	0.532	0.386	0.323	0.273	0.176
77	Sri Lanka`LKA`Southern Asia	0.530	0.337	0.302	0.294	0.349
78	Guyana`GUY`South America	0.523	0.336	0.322	0.223	0.358
79	Mali`MLI`Western Africa	0.519	0.366	0.365	0.434	0.354
=80	Bangladesh`BGD`Southern Asia	0.512	0.275	0.236	0.201	0.213
=80	Solomon Islands`SLB`Melanesia	0.512	0.396	0.287	0.329	0.311
=82	Madagascar`MDG`Eastern Africa	0.507	0.271	0.317	0.242	0.243
=82	Thailand`THA`South-eastern Asia	0.507	0.384	0.231	0.479	0.286
84	North Macedonia`MKD`Southern Europe	0.503	0.388	0.298	0.254	0.362
=85	Burkina Faso`BFA`Western Africa	0.492	0.262	0.251	0.363	0.341
=85	El Salvador`SLV`Central America	0.492	0.289	0.304	0.319	0.223
87	Tanzania`TZA`Eastern Africa	0.491	0.403	0.314	0.367	0.361
88	Guatemala`GTM`Central America	0.489	0.284	0.312	0.358	0.207
89	Zambia`ZMB`Eastern Africa	0.478	0.374	0.312	0.416	0.315
90	Mozambique`MOZ`Eastern Africa	0.460	0.302	0.276	0.286	0.289
91	Russia`RUS`Eastern Europe	0.456	0.282	0.288	0.350	0.310
92	Ukraine`UKR`Eastern Europe	0.448	0.257	0.248	0.304	0.345
93	Haiti`HTI`Caribbean	0.442	0.288	0.254	0.304	0.155
94	Comoros`COM`Eastern Africa	0.430	0.209	0.248	0.286	0.288
95	Croatia`HRV`Southern Europe	0.428	0.261	0.248	0.168	0.345
96	Armenia`ARM`Western Asia	0.404	0.214	0.205	0.265	0.351
97	Nepal`NPL`Southern Asia	0.395	0.310	0.222	0.331	0.284
98	Côte d’Ivoire`CIV`Western Africa	0.392	0.241	0.248	0.238	0.238
99	Pakistan`PAK`Southern Asia	0.391	0.199	0.209	0.189	0.140
100	Albania`ALB`Southern Europe	0.390	0.323	0.252	0.304	0.289
101	Niger`NER`Western Africa	0.385	0.228	0.182	0.277	0.288
102	Georgia`GEO`Western Asia	0.380	0.213	0.121	0.225	0.303
103	Singapore`SGP`South-eastern Asia	0.375	0.304	0.097	0.309	0.328
104	Hong Kong`HKG`Eastern Asia	0.372	0.325	0.142	0.325	0.328
105	Lesotho`LSO`Southern Africa	0.371	0.288	0.188	0.246	0.328
106	Seychelles`SYC`Eastern Africa	0.367	0.259	0.132	0.271	0.325
107	Kenya`KEN`Eastern Africa	0.363	0.225	0.213	0.333	0.227
108	Guinea-Bissau`GNB`Western Africa	0.358	0.201	0.145	0.167	0.183
109	Montenegro`MNE`Southern Europe	0.353	0.191	0.223	0.281	0.298
110	Central African Republic`CAF`Middle Africa	0.352	0.220	0.162	0.264	0.210
111	Peru`PER`South America	0.349	0.120	0.204	0.177	0.175
112	Liberia`LBR`Western Africa	0.348	0.161	0.167	0.218	0.191
113	Cambodia`KHM`South-eastern Asia	0.347	0.132	0.127	0.215	0.127
114	Belarus`BLR`Eastern Europe	0.343	0.131	0.140	0.108	0.319
115	Gabon`GAB`Middle Africa	0.338	0.203	0.235	0.287	0.217
=116	Algeria`DZA`Northern Africa	0.312	0.150	0.122	0.280	0.259
=116	Lebanon`LBN`Western Asia	0.312	0.188	0.116	0.221	0.216
118	Togo`TGO`Western Africa	0.310	0.162	0.129	0.208	0.255
119	Zimbabwe`ZWE`Eastern Africa	0.308	0.226	0.207	0.255	0.188
120	Uganda`UGA`Eastern Africa	0.305	0.239	0.204	0.272	0.214
121	Mauritania`MRT`Western Africa	0.302	0.133	0.115	0.154	0.145
122	Serbia`SRB`Southern Europe	0.298	0.185	0.185	0.139	0.251
123	Cameroon`CMR`Middle Africa	0.292	0.147	0.148	0.128	0.170
124	Kyrgyzstan`KGZ`Central Asia	0.290	0.177	0.116	0.190	0.254
=125	Indonesia`IDN`South-eastern Asia	0.286	0.117	0.095	0.231	0.184
=125	Kuwait`KWT`Western Asia	0.286	0.270	0.092	0.287	0.225
127	Kazakhstan`KAZ`Central Asia	0.284	0.134	0.108	0.097	0.196
128	Chad`TCD`Middle Africa	0.279	0.097	0.134	0.120	0.103
129	Yemen`YEM`Western Asia	0.266	0.132	0.073	0.162	0.098
=130	Gambia`GMB`Western Africa	0.259	0.129	0.154	0.084	0.176
=130	Guinea`GIN`Western Africa	0.259	0.108	0.150	0.174	0.150
132	Malaysia`MYS`South-eastern Asia	0.257	0.161	0.166	0.177	0.203
=133	Djibouti`DJI`Eastern Africa	0.245	0.114	0.114	0.125	0.154
=133	Ethiopia`ETH`Eastern Africa	0.245	0.111	0.094	0.152	0.156
135	Azerbaijan`AZE`Western Asia	0.244	0.083	0.077	0.085	0.160
136	Iran`IRN`Southern Asia	0.231	0.159	0.065	0.259	0.196
137	Jordan`JOR`Western Asia	0.224	0.195	0.083	0.187	0.199
138	Nigeria`NGA`Western Africa	0.222	0.107	0.175	0.207	0.136
139	Sierra Leone`SLE`Western Africa	0.220	0.075	0.154	0.239	0.124
140	Egypt`EGY`Northern Africa	0.215	0.155	0.075	0.162	0.106
141	Morocco`MAR`Northern Africa	0.212	0.198	0.108	0.157	0.138
142	Tajikistan`TJK`Central Asia	0.196	0.066	0.081	0.106	0.139
143	Tunisia`TUN`Northern Africa	0.188	0.091	0.118	0.146	0.204
144	Burundi`BDI`Eastern Africa	0.183	0.148	0.134	0.209	0.168
145	Equatorial Guinea`GNQ`Middle Africa	0.180	0.051	0.048	0.060	0.111
146	Somaliland`XSL`Eastern Africa	0.170	0.137	0.110	0.155	0.103
147	Republic of the Congo`COG`Middle Africa	0.165	0.079	0.110	0.132	0.074
148	Uzbekistan`UZB`Central Asia	0.163	0.037	0.056	0.072	0.125
149	Maldives`MDV`Southern Asia	0.161	0.058	0.069	0.032	0.151
150	Somalia`SOM`Eastern Africa	0.158	0.027	0.069	0.067	0.043
151	Angola`AGO`Middle Africa	0.155	0.076	0.062	0.052	0.063
152	Vietnam`VNM`South-eastern Asia	0.153	0.083	0.168	0.166	0.193
153	Sudan`SDN`Northern Africa	0.151	0.026	0.066	0.043	0.058
154	DR Congo`COD`Middle Africa	0.149	0.039	0.096	0.060	0.094
155	Iraq`IRQ`Western Asia	0.146	0.070	0.044	0.015	0.093
156	Syria`SYR`Western Asia	0.144	0.038	0.050	0.021	0.127
157	Turkmenistan`TKM`Central Asia	0.143	0.024	0.069	0.020	0.099
158	Eritrea`ERI`Eastern Africa	0.122	0.033	0.018	0.050	0.160
159	Eswatini`SWZ`Southern Africa	0.117	0.095	0.126	0.074	0.071
160	Cuba`CUB`Caribbean	0.113	0.039	0.043	0.056	0.233
161	Rwanda`RWA`Eastern Africa	0.106	0.124	0.107	0.101	0.164
162	China`CHN`Eastern Asia	0.102	0.069	0.038	0.131	0.109
163	Myanmar`MMR`South-eastern Asia	0.096	0.017	0.043	0.024	0.071
164	Timor-Leste`TLS`South-eastern Asia	0.090	—	—	0.011	0.078
165	Laos`LAO`South-eastern Asia	0.087	0.087	0.091	0.040	0.105
166	North Korea`PRK`Eastern Asia	0.084	0.014	0.043	0.007	0.086
167	Afghanistan`AFG`Southern Asia	0.073	0.022	0.013	0.007	0.038
168	Libya`LBY`Northern Africa	0.072	0.048	0.044	0.046	0.125
169	Bhutan`BTN`Southern Asia	0.064	0.141	0.104	0.163	0.170
170	Bahrain`BHR`Western Asia	0.049	—	0.011	0.028	0.102
171	United Arab Emirates`ARE`Western Asia	0.028	0.070	0.014	0.117	0.094
=172	Oman`OMN`Western Asia	0.017	0.086	0.050	0.037	0.136
=172	Qatar`QAT`Western Asia	0.017	0.088	0.014	0.045	0.116
174	Saudi Arabia`SAU`Western Asia	0.016	0.039	0.019	0.030	0.109

02In 1998

At either end

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

Highest

1Sweden0.912
2Denmark0.906
3Germanyshared0.894
3Spainshared0.894
5Costa Rica0.893

Lowest

174Saudi Arabia0.016
172Qatarshared0.017
172Omanshared0.017
171United Arab Emirates0.028
170Bahrain0.049

A higher value is the better result. The middle country reads 0.490. “Shared” marks a value another country also holds.

Each measure’s ends

Liberal democracy (0–1)
Highest2 share it
LowestNorth Korea0.014
Middle country: 0.310
Participatory democracy (0–1)
HighestSwitzerland0.793
LowestBahrain0.011
Middle country: 0.276
Deliberative democracy (0–1)
HighestSweden0.881
Lowest2 share it
Middle country: 0.314
Egalitarian democracy (0–1)
HighestSweden0.870
LowestAfghanistan0.038
Middle country: 0.310

031997 → 1998

Since 1997

What changed between 1997 and this one: who joined or left, and how far the headline moved.

+1 / −0countries joined / left
105values changed, of 173 in both
62 · 43rose · fell
68unchanged

Rose most

Liberia0.241 → 0.348+0.107
Indonesia0.200 → 0.286+0.086
Guyana0.452 → 0.523+0.071
Slovakia0.702 → 0.765+0.063
South Korea0.743 → 0.804+0.061

Fell most

Republic of the Congo0.243 → 0.165−0.078
Ukraine0.523 → 0.448−0.075
Sierra Leone0.292 → 0.220−0.072
Mali0.550 → 0.519−0.031
Belarus0.369 → 0.343−0.026

+ Montenegro

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 1998.
155 distinct values among 174
Values are stored exactly as published, to 3 decimals. 3 countries share 0.882. 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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Opens with 11 lines of source notes; the table starts on row 13.
Download vdem-democracy-1998-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 (1998). V-Dem Electoral Democracy Index, 1998 [data set], describing 1998. As held by Nations Inquiry, https://nationsinquiry.com/datasets/vdem-democracy/1998

0636 held

Other years

‹ The year before
V-Dem Electoral Democracy Index, 1997
173 countries
The year after ›
V-Dem Electoral Democracy Index, 1999
175 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