Data for 2003

V-Dem Electoral Democracy Index, 2003

Name: V-Dem Electoral Democracy Index, 2003
Creator: V-Dem Institute, University of Gothenburg
License: https://v-dem.net/data/the-v-dem-dataset/

2003, as V-Dem Institute’s 2026 release gives it · stored as published, never rewritten

V-Dem Electoral Democracy Index, 2003 covers 175 countries on 5 measures. Sweden is highest, at 0.911; Saudi Arabia is lowest, at 0.018. The middle country reads 0.529. Against 2002, 117 values changed (71 up, 46 down), the same countries are covered.

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V-Dem Electoral Democracy Index · Data for 2003

HighestSweden

0.911

LowestSaudi Arabia

0.018

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

175countries
5measures per country
2003the year it describes
154distinct 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, 2003, 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 175 countries · select a heading to sort

V-Dem Electoral Democracy Index, 2003: every country, as published by V-Dem Institute, University of Gothenburg.
derived
1	Sweden`SWE`Northern Europe	0.911	0.877	0.684	0.880	0.867
2	Denmark`DNK`Northern Europe	0.908	0.880	0.720	0.862	0.868
3	Germany`DEU`Western Europe	0.896	0.857	0.650	0.865	0.836
4	Costa Rica`CRI`Central America	0.895	0.843	0.648	0.839	0.798
5	Norway`NOR`Northern Europe	0.893	0.860	0.655	0.867	0.853
6	Czechia`CZE`Eastern Europe	0.891	0.814	0.613	0.796	0.804
7	Switzerland`CHE`Western Europe	0.888	0.841	0.790	0.853	0.820
8	Greece`GRC`Southern Europe	0.887	0.802	0.603	0.779	0.802
9	Belgium`BEL`Western Europe	0.886	0.819	0.638	0.798	0.825
=10	Ireland`IRL`Northern Europe	0.882	0.806	0.632	0.741	0.771
=10	Poland`POL`Eastern Europe	0.882	0.813	0.651	0.737	0.772
=12	Chile`CHL`South America	0.880	0.817	0.577	0.799	0.614
=12	New Zealand`NZL`Australia and New Zealand	0.880	0.825	0.703	0.765	0.778
14	Australia`AUS`Australia and New Zealand	0.879	0.838	0.641	0.792	0.785
15	Portugal`PRT`Southern Europe	0.876	0.821	0.623	0.780	0.793
16	Spain`ESP`Southern Europe	0.875	0.796	0.611	0.776	0.797
17	France`FRA`Western Europe	0.874	0.802	0.656	0.802	0.779
18	Uruguay`URY`South America	0.873	0.790	0.727	0.807	0.748
19	Finland`FIN`Northern Europe	0.871	0.831	0.632	0.822	0.809
20	Luxembourg`LUX`Western Europe	0.869	0.787	0.590	0.811	0.816
21	Estonia`EST`Northern Europe	0.868	0.808	0.641	0.763	0.761
22	Iceland`ISL`Northern Europe	0.867	0.781	0.614	0.741	0.796
=23	Netherlands`NLD`Western Europe	0.860	0.813	0.576	0.794	0.788
=23	United States`USA`Northern America	0.860	0.798	0.620	0.771	0.681
25	Austria`AUT`Western Europe	0.858	0.786	0.619	0.766	0.762
26	United Kingdom`GBR`Northern Europe	0.857	0.793	0.604	0.759	0.738
27	Brazil`BRA`South America	0.855	0.722	0.607	0.782	0.606
=28	Hungary`HUN`Eastern Europe	0.843	0.759	0.617	0.619	0.702
=28	Slovakia`SVK`Eastern Europe	0.843	0.746	0.650	0.706	0.683
30	Slovenia`SVN`Southern Europe	0.841	0.752	0.718	0.785	0.756
31	Japan`JPN`Eastern Asia	0.838	0.762	0.550	0.744	0.759
32	Italy`ITA`Southern Europe	0.837	0.753	0.659	0.756	0.761
33	South Korea`KOR`Eastern Asia	0.835	0.761	0.586	0.777	0.734
34	Canada`CAN`Northern America	0.825	0.746	0.570	0.737	0.702
35	Latvia`LVA`Northern Europe	0.822	0.714	0.590	0.669	0.670
36	Lithuania`LTU`Northern Europe	0.814	0.752	0.600	0.711	0.735
37	Argentina`ARG`South America	0.807	0.638	0.555	0.636	0.636
38	Cyprus`CYP`Western Asia	0.805	0.668	0.536	0.714	0.670
39	Peru`PER`South America	0.792	0.651	0.544	0.718	0.476
40	Malta`MLT`Southern Europe	0.788	0.599	0.543	0.663	0.672
41	Taiwan`TWN`Eastern Asia	0.784	0.684	0.545	0.704	0.681
42	Suriname`SUR`South America	0.779	0.662	0.501	0.625	0.578
43	Trinidad and Tobago`TTO`Caribbean	0.776	0.662	0.495	0.632	0.647
44	Croatia`HRV`Southern Europe	0.769	0.624	0.479	0.635	0.636
=45	Barbados`BRB`Caribbean	0.767	0.652	0.331	0.654	0.624
=45	Cabo Verde`CPV`Western Africa	0.767	0.682	0.453	0.642	0.610
47	Israel`ISR`Western Asia	0.760	0.683	0.492	0.621	0.627
=48	Jamaica`JAM`Caribbean	0.743	0.617	0.471	0.602	0.561
=48	South Africa`ZAF`Southern Africa	0.743	0.629	0.514	0.645	0.499
50	Panama`PAN`Central America	0.738	0.558	0.465	0.629	0.479
51	Mauritius`MUS`Eastern Africa	0.737	0.648	0.473	0.678	0.593
52	India`IND`Southern Asia	0.736	0.583	0.491	0.670	0.481
53	Ghana`GHA`Western Africa	0.731	0.631	0.389	0.653	0.527
54	Bulgaria`BGR`Eastern Europe	0.721	0.621	0.451	0.628	0.570
55	Bolivia`BOL`South America	0.719	0.515	0.442	0.599	0.464
=56	Botswana`BWA`Southern Africa	0.702	0.607	0.467	0.598	0.504
=56	Mexico`MEX`Central America	0.702	0.499	0.436	0.559	0.359
58	Ecuador`ECU`South America	0.698	0.454	0.481	0.390	0.400
59	Senegal`SEN`Western Africa	0.685	0.536	0.421	0.591	0.492
60	Mongolia`MNG`Eastern Asia	0.672	0.556	0.381	0.573	0.536
61	Dominican Republic`DOM`Caribbean	0.671	0.385	0.432	0.518	0.349
62	Indonesia`IDN`South-eastern Asia	0.666	0.512	0.424	0.609	0.448
63	Bosnia and Herzegovina`BIH`Southern Europe	0.661	0.426	0.381	0.443	0.445
=64	Namibia`NAM`Southern Africa	0.651	0.537	0.406	0.514	0.430
=64	Türkiye`TUR`Western Asia	0.651	0.498	0.395	0.476	0.472
66	Serbia`SRB`Southern Europe	0.646	0.530	0.439	0.561	0.492
67	São Tomé and Príncipe`STP`Middle Africa	0.637	0.511	0.403	0.426	0.434
68	Mali`MLI`Western Africa	0.624	0.416	0.424	0.511	0.419
69	Vanuatu`VUT`Melanesia	0.620	0.519	0.364	0.450	0.503
70	North Macedonia`MKD`Southern Europe	0.617	0.465	0.383	0.421	0.450
71	Lesotho`LSO`Southern Africa	0.614	0.450	0.296	0.393	0.498
72	Romania`ROU`Eastern Europe	0.609	0.437	0.403	0.363	0.481
73	Benin`BEN`Western Africa	0.603	0.494	0.401	0.545	0.442
74	Nicaragua`NIC`Central America	0.591	0.371	0.358	0.476	0.287
75	Guyana`GUY`South America	0.588	0.372	0.362	0.331	0.399
76	Timor-Leste`TLS`South-eastern Asia	0.573	0.411	0.259	0.404	0.350
=77	Honduras`HND`Central America	0.565	0.333	0.344	0.421	0.233
=77	Paraguay`PRY`South America	0.565	0.409	0.350	0.306	0.216
79	Sierra Leone`SLE`Western Africa	0.560	0.362	0.352	0.421	0.317
=80	Guatemala`GTM`Central America	0.543	0.363	0.331	0.370	0.231
=80	Niger`NER`Western Africa	0.543	0.407	0.292	0.439	0.373
82	Papua New Guinea`PNG`Melanesia	0.541	0.416	0.317	0.329	0.304
=83	El Salvador`SLV`Central America	0.537	0.332	0.331	0.344	0.232
=83	Thailand`THA`South-eastern Asia	0.537	0.391	0.234	0.493	0.322
85	Colombia`COL`South America	0.535	0.421	0.372	0.315	0.312
86	Kosovo`XKX`Southern Europe	0.532	0.377	0.286	0.296	0.361
87	Fiji`FJI`Melanesia	0.530	0.371	0.284	0.348	0.342
=88	Philippines`PHL`South-eastern Asia	0.529	0.393	0.360	0.453	0.273
=88	Sri Lanka`LKA`Southern Asia	0.529	0.340	0.327	0.296	0.349
90	Burkina Faso`BFA`Western Africa	0.516	0.324	0.264	0.396	0.352
91	Kenya`KEN`Eastern Africa	0.510	0.355	0.295	0.437	0.311
92	Solomon Islands`SLB`Melanesia	0.507	0.389	0.284	0.309	0.311
93	Moldova`MDA`Eastern Europe	0.506	0.381	0.291	0.243	0.361
94	Montenegro`MNE`Southern Europe	0.503	0.378	0.304	0.378	0.389
95	Madagascar`MDG`Eastern Africa	0.495	0.267	0.310	0.289	0.240
96	Venezuela`VEN`South America	0.487	0.243	0.348	0.263	0.343
97	Albania`ALB`Southern Europe	0.486	0.398	0.309	0.372	0.350
98	Zambia`ZMB`Eastern Africa	0.484	0.405	0.314	0.436	0.323
99	Malawi`MWI`Eastern Africa	0.478	0.387	0.286	0.340	0.303
100	Bangladesh`BGD`Southern Asia	0.474	0.237	0.214	0.186	0.197
101	Tanzania`TZA`Eastern Africa	0.440	0.373	0.286	0.342	0.334
102	Côte d’Ivoire`CIV`Western Africa	0.439	0.283	0.288	0.358	0.278
103	Nigeria`NGA`Western Africa	0.428	0.304	0.295	0.349	0.242
104	Mozambique`MOZ`Eastern Africa	0.422	0.299	0.263	0.305	0.283
105	Haiti`HTI`Caribbean	0.408	0.259	0.241	0.290	0.144
106	Seychelles`SYC`Eastern Africa	0.396	0.305	0.151	0.293	0.341
107	Ukraine`UKR`Eastern Europe	0.392	0.262	0.255	0.258	0.284
108	Georgia`GEO`Western Asia	0.384	0.220	0.144	0.242	0.307
109	Singapore`SGP`South-eastern Asia	0.377	0.308	0.100	0.309	0.346
110	Guinea-Bissau`GNB`Western Africa	0.376	0.202	0.155	0.182	0.208
111	Hong Kong`HKG`Eastern Asia	0.372	0.325	0.149	0.333	0.327
112	Comoros`COM`Eastern Africa	0.369	0.156	0.248	0.293	0.274
=113	Pakistan`PAK`Southern Asia	0.356	0.190	0.238	0.257	0.129
=113	Somaliland`XSL`Eastern Africa	0.356	0.218	0.238	0.246	0.158
115	Lebanon`LBN`Western Asia	0.351	0.206	0.129	0.246	0.234
116	Armenia`ARM`Western Asia	0.349	0.186	0.180	0.174	0.292
117	Gabon`GAB`Middle Africa	0.344	0.202	0.238	0.290	0.255
118	Russia`RUS`Eastern Europe	0.339	0.165	0.204	0.269	0.246
119	Algeria`DZA`Northern Africa	0.331	0.163	0.152	0.248	0.260
120	Cambodia`KHM`South-eastern Asia	0.321	0.126	0.124	0.172	0.119
121	Mauritania`MRT`Western Africa	0.313	0.140	0.120	0.183	0.149
122	Cameroon`CMR`Middle Africa	0.309	0.157	0.155	0.156	0.193
123	Togo`TGO`Western Africa	0.304	0.166	0.125	0.204	0.263
124	Liberia`LBR`Western Africa	0.303	0.149	0.151	0.202	0.178
125	Malaysia`MYS`South-eastern Asia	0.286	0.173	0.213	0.205	0.215
=126	Kuwait`KWT`Western Asia	0.282	0.265	0.092	0.285	0.224
=126	Kyrgyzstan`KGZ`Central Asia	0.282	0.168	0.140	0.179	0.226
128	Guinea`GIN`Western Africa	0.277	0.117	0.167	0.105	0.162
129	Yemen`YEM`Western Asia	0.275	0.152	0.166	0.165	0.102
130	Chad`TCD`Middle Africa	0.273	0.095	0.130	0.117	0.106
131	Zimbabwe`ZWE`Eastern Africa	0.269	0.157	0.220	0.202	0.171
132	Djibouti`DJI`Eastern Africa	0.262	0.120	0.118	0.144	0.166
=133	Gambia`GMB`Western Africa	0.257	0.119	0.157	0.078	0.179
=133	Republic of the Congo`COG`Middle Africa	0.257	0.097	0.142	0.153	0.097
=133	Uganda`UGA`Eastern Africa	0.257	0.212	0.193	0.236	0.187
136	Morocco`MAR`Northern Africa	0.253	0.221	0.128	0.223	0.177
137	Kazakhstan`KAZ`Central Asia	0.247	0.121	0.088	0.097	0.186
=138	Central African Republic`CAF`Middle Africa	0.245	0.118	0.120	0.212	0.156
=138	Tajikistan`TJK`Central Asia	0.245	0.082	0.098	0.098	0.138
140	Ethiopia`ETH`Eastern Africa	0.242	0.111	0.093	0.150	0.158
141	Belarus`BLR`Eastern Europe	0.241	0.098	0.088	0.077	0.272
142	Azerbaijan`AZE`Western Asia	0.238	0.076	0.085	0.054	0.154
143	Iran`IRN`Southern Asia	0.232	0.153	0.062	0.260	0.196
=144	Afghanistan`AFG`Southern Asia	0.224	0.085	0.094	0.234	0.143
=144	Nepal`NPL`Southern Asia	0.224	0.145	0.125	0.164	0.201
146	Bahrain`BHR`Western Asia	0.211	0.092	0.102	0.144	0.151
=147	Burundi`BDI`Eastern Africa	0.209	0.151	0.148	0.242	0.177
=147	Egypt`EGY`Northern Africa	0.209	0.151	0.076	0.143	0.090
149	Jordan`JOR`Western Asia	0.208	0.152	0.071	0.199	0.178
150	Tunisia`TUN`Northern Africa	0.190	0.091	0.136	0.147	0.199
151	Equatorial Guinea`GNQ`Middle Africa	0.185	0.053	0.045	0.062	0.100
152	Iraq`IRQ`Western Asia	0.184	0.118	0.096	0.087	0.142
153	DR Congo`COD`Middle Africa	0.180	0.085	0.111	0.113	0.132
154	Sudan`SDN`Northern Africa	0.173	0.037	0.087	0.047	0.052
155	Maldives`MDV`Southern Asia	0.171	0.057	0.084	0.034	0.152
=156	Angola`AGO`Middle Africa	0.166	0.083	0.052	0.087	0.061
=156	Somalia`SOM`Eastern Africa	0.166	0.028	0.077	0.074	0.043
158	Uzbekistan`UZB`Central Asia	0.157	0.035	0.048	0.047	0.130
159	Oman`OMN`Western Asia	0.151	0.123	0.069	0.054	0.166
160	Syria`SYR`Western Asia	0.150	0.050	0.057	0.026	0.108
161	Vietnam`VNM`South-eastern Asia	0.146	0.092	0.167	0.186	0.196
162	Rwanda`RWA`Eastern Africa	0.143	0.111	0.156	0.157	0.177
163	Eswatini`SWZ`Southern Africa	0.125	0.097	0.128	0.083	0.072
164	Cuba`CUB`Caribbean	0.114	0.040	0.044	0.056	0.234
165	China`CHN`Eastern Asia	0.103	0.074	0.054	0.163	0.112
=166	Bhutan`BTN`Southern Asia	0.096	0.158	0.132	0.196	0.196
=166	Myanmar`MMR`South-eastern Asia	0.096	0.018	0.043	0.027	0.071
168	Laos`LAO`South-eastern Asia	0.090	0.089	0.091	0.041	0.106
169	North Korea`PRK`Eastern Asia	0.083	0.014	0.043	0.008	0.088
170	Libya`LBY`Northern Africa	0.072	0.045	0.044	0.046	0.125
171	Turkmenistan`TKM`Central Asia	0.069	0.014	0.052	0.010	0.086
172	Eritrea`ERI`Eastern Africa	0.067	0.006	0.009	0.026	0.139
173	Qatar`QAT`Western Asia	0.041	0.095	0.033	0.077	0.116
174	United Arab Emirates`ARE`Western Asia	0.025	0.069	0.014	0.128	0.101
175	Saudi Arabia`SAU`Western Asia	0.018	0.039	0.020	0.042	0.099

02In 2003

At either end

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

Highest

1Sweden0.911
2Denmark0.908
3Germany0.896
4Costa Rica0.895
5Norway0.893

Lowest

175Saudi Arabia0.018
174United Arab Emirates0.025
173Qatar0.041
172Eritrea0.067
171Turkmenistan0.069

A higher value is the better result. The middle country reads 0.529. “Shared” marks a value another country also holds.

Each measure’s ends

Liberal democracy (0–1)
HighestDenmark0.880
LowestEritrea0.006
Middle country: 0.373
Participatory democracy (0–1)
HighestSwitzerland0.790
LowestEritrea0.009
Middle country: 0.304
Deliberative democracy (0–1)
HighestSweden0.880
LowestNorth Korea0.008
Middle country: 0.349
Egalitarian democracy (0–1)
HighestDenmark0.868
LowestSomalia0.043
Middle country: 0.327

032002 → 2003

Since 2002

What changed between 2002 and this one: who joined or left, and how far the headline moved.

+0 / −0countries joined / left
117values changed, of 175 in both
71 · 46rose · fell
58unchanged

Rose most

Fiji0.317 → 0.530+0.213
Somaliland0.198 → 0.356+0.158
Sierra Leone0.430 → 0.560+0.130
Lesotho0.496 → 0.614+0.118
Pakistan0.243 → 0.356+0.113

Fell most

Central African Republic0.341 → 0.245−0.096
Guinea-Bissau0.434 → 0.376−0.058
Armenia0.405 → 0.349−0.056
Nepal0.271 → 0.224−0.047
Nigeria0.471 → 0.428−0.043

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 2003.
154 distinct values among 175
Values are stored exactly as published, to 3 decimals. 3 countries share 0.257. 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

.csv
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175 rows · 8.8 KB · UTF-8, opens in Excel
Opens with 11 lines of source notes; the table starts on row 13.
Download vdem-democracy-2003-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 (2003). V-Dem Electoral Democracy Index, 2003 [data set], describing 2003. As held by Nations Inquiry, https://nationsinquiry.com/datasets/vdem-democracy/2003

0636 held

Other years

‹ The year before
V-Dem Electoral Democracy Index, 2002
175 countries
The year after ›
V-Dem Electoral Democracy Index, 2004
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