Data for 2015

V-Dem Electoral Democracy Index, 2015

Name: V-Dem Electoral Democracy Index, 2015
Creator: V-Dem Institute, University of Gothenburg
License: https://v-dem.net/data/the-v-dem-dataset/

2015, as V-Dem Institute’s 2026 release gives it · stored as published, never rewritten

V-Dem Electoral Democracy Index, 2015 covers 176 countries on 5 measures. Denmark is highest, at 0.921; Saudi Arabia is lowest, at 0.016. The middle country reads 0.536. Against 2014, 142 values changed (62 up, 80 down), the same countries are covered.

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V-Dem Electoral Democracy Index · Data for 2015

HighestDenmark

0.921

LowestSaudi Arabia

0.016

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

176countries
5measures per country
2015the year it describes
160distinct 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, 2015, 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 176 countries · select a heading to sort

V-Dem Electoral Democracy Index, 2015: every country, as published by V-Dem Institute, University of Gothenburg.
derived
1	Denmark`DNK`Northern Europe	0.921	0.894	0.710	0.881	0.884
2	Sweden`SWE`Northern Europe	0.915	0.881	0.657	0.878	0.850
3	Costa Rica`CRI`Central America	0.906	0.854	0.678	0.850	0.815
4	Norway`NOR`Northern Europe	0.904	0.871	0.653	0.877	0.861
5	Switzerland`CHE`Western Europe	0.903	0.858	0.805	0.872	0.837
6	Belgium`BEL`Western Europe	0.901	0.837	0.650	0.811	0.835
7	United States`USA`Northern America	0.900	0.848	0.653	0.854	0.728
8	Uruguay`URY`South America	0.897	0.832	0.750	0.827	0.799
9	Ireland`IRL`Northern Europe	0.895	0.825	0.644	0.803	0.777
10	Estonia`EST`Northern Europe	0.894	0.845	0.633	0.810	0.795
11	Portugal`PRT`Southern Europe	0.887	0.829	0.639	0.810	0.796
12	Chile`CHL`South America	0.886	0.839	0.589	0.819	0.665
=13	France`FRA`Western Europe	0.883	0.812	0.629	0.820	0.801
=13	Germany`DEU`Western Europe	0.883	0.845	0.639	0.850	0.827
=13	New Zealand`NZL`Australia and New Zealand	0.883	0.828	0.687	0.765	0.778
16	Greece`GRC`Southern Europe	0.880	0.785	0.642	0.764	0.784
17	Netherlands`NLD`Western Europe	0.879	0.831	0.608	0.815	0.802
18	Poland`POL`Eastern Europe	0.876	0.775	0.616	0.693	0.786
19	Luxembourg`LUX`Western Europe	0.874	0.793	0.632	0.826	0.823
=20	Austria`AUT`Western Europe	0.873	0.805	0.659	0.792	0.768
=20	Slovenia`SVN`Southern Europe	0.873	0.804	0.689	0.785	0.788
22	Finland`FIN`Northern Europe	0.869	0.827	0.610	0.806	0.808
=23	Australia`AUS`Australia and New Zealand	0.865	0.825	0.603	0.794	0.756
=23	Italy`ITA`Southern Europe	0.865	0.786	0.671	0.804	0.785
=25	Brazil`BRA`South America	0.861	0.769	0.615	0.792	0.608
=25	Iceland`ISL`Northern Europe	0.861	0.777	0.638	0.693	0.794
27	Spain`ESP`Southern Europe	0.856	0.759	0.612	0.743	0.757
28	United Kingdom`GBR`Northern Europe	0.855	0.788	0.631	0.728	0.728
29	Czechia`CZE`Eastern Europe	0.852	0.766	0.568	0.730	0.769
30	Cyprus`CYP`Western Asia	0.851	0.737	0.577	0.735	0.738
=31	Latvia`LVA`Northern Europe	0.838	0.754	0.658	0.719	0.726
=31	Slovakia`SVK`Eastern Europe	0.838	0.725	0.635	0.645	0.671
33	Lithuania`LTU`Northern Europe	0.836	0.780	0.639	0.737	0.747
=34	Japan`JPN`Eastern Asia	0.817	0.740	0.527	0.726	0.738
=34	Peru`PER`South America	0.817	0.688	0.584	0.631	0.508
36	Croatia`HRV`Southern Europe	0.816	0.703	0.593	0.644	0.656
37	Canada`CAN`Northern America	0.807	0.735	0.552	0.687	0.665
38	Taiwan`TWN`Eastern Asia	0.806	0.686	0.601	0.670	0.709
39	Jamaica`JAM`Caribbean	0.798	0.679	0.539	0.694	0.606
40	Cabo Verde`CPV`Western Africa	0.795	0.707	0.472	0.643	0.639
41	Trinidad and Tobago`TTO`Caribbean	0.791	0.676	0.507	0.650	0.654
42	Malta`MLT`Southern Europe	0.778	0.584	0.574	0.632	0.678
43	Barbados`BRB`Caribbean	0.776	0.662	0.337	0.680	0.635
44	Argentina`ARG`South America	0.765	0.590	0.513	0.559	0.603
45	Suriname`SUR`South America	0.757	0.633	0.477	0.606	0.560
=46	Panama`PAN`Central America	0.755	0.553	0.475	0.632	0.497
=46	South Africa`ZAF`Southern Africa	0.755	0.649	0.500	0.631	0.516
48	Vanuatu`VUT`Melanesia	0.747	0.639	0.451	0.587	0.605
49	Ghana`GHA`Western Africa	0.739	0.631	0.368	0.606	0.537
50	Mauritius`MUS`Eastern Africa	0.737	0.627	0.465	0.608	0.601
51	Israel`ISR`Western Asia	0.733	0.654	0.469	0.591	0.596
52	Tunisia`TUN`Northern Africa	0.727	0.629	0.407	0.657	0.585
53	Senegal`SEN`Western Africa	0.726	0.586	0.434	0.615	0.543
54	Romania`ROU`Eastern Europe	0.716	0.609	0.501	0.514	0.554
55	Namibia`NAM`Southern Africa	0.707	0.579	0.444	0.552	0.472
56	South Korea`KOR`Eastern Asia	0.705	0.599	0.462	0.545	0.597
57	Botswana`BWA`Southern Africa	0.690	0.587	0.438	0.529	0.485
=58	Colombia`COL`South America	0.681	0.551	0.461	0.566	0.420
=58	Mongolia`MNG`Eastern Asia	0.681	0.556	0.378	0.560	0.528
60	Bulgaria`BGR`Eastern Europe	0.671	0.566	0.463	0.543	0.519
61	Georgia`GEO`Western Asia	0.668	0.504	0.434	0.517	0.531
62	São Tomé and Príncipe`STP`Middle Africa	0.664	0.554	0.409	0.472	0.465
63	El Salvador`SLV`Central America	0.658	0.462	0.407	0.460	0.316
64	Indonesia`IDN`South-eastern Asia	0.654	0.511	0.441	0.565	0.435
65	Benin`BEN`Western Africa	0.652	0.523	0.430	0.562	0.497
66	Kosovo`XKX`Southern Europe	0.651	0.450	0.364	0.411	0.434
67	Guyana`GUY`South America	0.650	0.444	0.402	0.376	0.463
68	Timor-Leste`TLS`South-eastern Asia	0.644	0.466	0.362	0.446	0.405
=69	Mexico`MEX`Central America	0.643	0.433	0.399	0.506	0.329
=69	Nepal`NPL`Southern Asia	0.643	0.534	0.357	0.440	0.438
71	Niger`NER`Western Africa	0.622	0.493	0.448	0.554	0.414
72	Hungary`HUN`Eastern Europe	0.617	0.477	0.404	0.366	0.467
73	Liberia`LBR`Western Africa	0.611	0.451	0.340	0.522	0.392
74	Bolivia`BOL`South America	0.609	0.368	0.463	0.450	0.416
75	Lesotho`LSO`Southern Africa	0.597	0.445	0.360	0.441	0.485
76	Solomon Islands`SLB`Melanesia	0.594	0.456	0.353	0.368	0.347
77	Paraguay`PRY`South America	0.593	0.416	0.374	0.324	0.236
78	Dominican Republic`DOM`Caribbean	0.590	0.344	0.365	0.440	0.321
79	Guatemala`GTM`Central America	0.587	0.425	0.345	0.375	0.249
80	Moldova`MDA`Eastern Europe	0.570	0.476	0.369	0.397	0.427
81	Bhutan`BTN`Southern Asia	0.568	0.479	0.354	0.474	0.470
82	Nigeria`NGA`Western Africa	0.554	0.401	0.372	0.421	0.308
83	Sri Lanka`LKA`Southern Asia	0.550	0.397	0.360	0.408	0.361
84	Bosnia and Herzegovina`BIH`Southern Europe	0.547	0.363	0.320	0.345	0.388
=85	India`IND`Southern Asia	0.543	0.417	0.330	0.411	0.318
=85	Mali`MLI`Western Africa	0.543	0.349	0.327	0.446	0.348
87	Malawi`MWI`Eastern Africa	0.540	0.444	0.343	0.433	0.322
88	Kenya`KEN`Eastern Africa	0.539	0.426	0.376	0.439	0.333
89	Ecuador`ECU`South America	0.533	0.263	0.363	0.341	0.377
90	Philippines`PHL`South-eastern Asia	0.522	0.409	0.361	0.466	0.270
=91	Albania`ALB`Southern Europe	0.518	0.435	0.313	0.290	0.374
=91	Seychelles`SYC`Eastern Africa	0.518	0.427	0.208	0.387	0.417
93	Sierra Leone`SLE`Western Africa	0.514	0.318	0.340	0.378	0.300
94	Guinea-Bissau`GNB`Western Africa	0.501	0.290	0.219	0.285	0.283
95	Montenegro`MNE`Southern Europe	0.484	0.387	0.320	0.393	0.396
96	Lebanon`LBN`Western Asia	0.480	0.295	0.262	0.378	0.301
97	Madagascar`MDG`Eastern Africa	0.476	0.258	0.301	0.269	0.238
98	Côte d’Ivoire`CIV`Western Africa	0.473	0.304	0.309	0.398	0.294
99	Togo`TGO`Western Africa	0.471	0.258	0.184	0.377	0.343
100	Zambia`ZMB`Eastern Africa	0.458	0.371	0.298	0.273	0.294
101	Kyrgyzstan`KGZ`Central Asia	0.455	0.317	0.277	0.381	0.312
102	Tanzania`TZA`Eastern Africa	0.453	0.391	0.288	0.374	0.355
103	Papua New Guinea`PNG`Melanesia	0.444	0.345	0.268	0.257	0.248
104	Pakistan`PAK`Southern Asia	0.441	0.264	0.272	0.286	0.148
105	North Macedonia`MKD`Southern Europe	0.440	0.270	0.299	0.253	0.309
106	Mozambique`MOZ`Eastern Africa	0.437	0.299	0.270	0.298	0.278
107	Mauritania`MRT`Western Africa	0.431	0.178	0.175	0.258	0.179
108	Honduras`HND`Central America	0.426	0.245	0.276	0.288	0.163
109	Haiti`HTI`Caribbean	0.425	0.243	0.251	0.269	0.134
110	Serbia`SRB`Southern Europe	0.422	0.341	0.281	0.294	0.338
111	Ukraine`UKR`Eastern Europe	0.420	0.228	0.293	0.367	0.295
112	Singapore`SGP`South-eastern Asia	0.416	0.331	0.110	0.353	0.367
113	Somaliland`XSL`Eastern Africa	0.401	0.247	0.247	0.267	0.157
114	Iraq`IRQ`Western Asia	0.396	0.236	0.259	0.260	0.210
115	Comoros`COM`Eastern Africa	0.395	0.240	0.267	0.284	0.278
116	Türkiye`TUR`Western Asia	0.388	0.230	0.264	0.157	0.292
117	Fiji`FJI`Melanesia	0.385	0.270	0.190	0.278	0.289
118	Maldives`MDV`Southern Asia	0.380	0.187	0.235	0.230	0.235
119	Burkina Faso`BFA`Western Africa	0.376	0.306	0.232	0.359	0.264
=120	Gabon`GAB`Middle Africa	0.375	0.223	0.262	0.327	0.292
=120	Guinea`GIN`Western Africa	0.375	0.161	0.251	0.155	0.222
122	Myanmar`MMR`South-eastern Asia	0.370	0.181	0.215	0.283	0.200
123	Afghanistan`AFG`Southern Asia	0.348	0.201	0.142	0.286	0.199
124	Armenia`ARM`Western Asia	0.346	0.203	0.190	0.224	0.282
125	Hong Kong`HKG`Eastern Asia	0.345	0.303	0.128	0.280	0.303
126	Algeria`DZA`Northern Africa	0.331	0.175	0.119	0.239	0.271
127	Malaysia`MYS`South-eastern Asia	0.325	0.204	0.232	0.244	0.227
128	Cameroon`CMR`Middle Africa	0.324	0.152	0.169	0.151	0.201
129	Nicaragua`NIC`Central America	0.318	0.124	0.186	0.138	0.166
130	DR Congo`COD`Middle Africa	0.316	0.122	0.204	0.142	0.184
131	Kuwait`KWT`Western Asia	0.311	0.278	0.108	0.305	0.244
132	Zimbabwe`ZWE`Eastern Africa	0.302	0.212	0.236	0.226	0.192
=133	Uganda`UGA`Eastern Africa	0.300	0.222	0.218	0.269	0.188
=133	Venezuela`VEN`South America	0.300	0.103	0.209	0.069	0.210
135	Cambodia`KHM`South-eastern Asia	0.291	0.115	0.114	0.144	0.114
136	Angola`AGO`Middle Africa	0.290	0.122	0.066	0.117	0.099
137	Libya`LBY`Northern Africa	0.285	0.172	0.179	0.232	0.198
138	Central African Republic`CAF`Middle Africa	0.284	0.179	0.130	0.180	0.176
139	Chad`TCD`Middle Africa	0.279	0.091	0.124	0.121	0.098
140	Bangladesh`BGD`Southern Asia	0.275	0.108	0.122	0.132	0.120
141	Russia`RUS`Eastern Europe	0.265	0.109	0.149	0.154	0.205
142	Morocco`MAR`Northern Africa	0.264	0.230	0.175	0.254	0.187
143	Jordan`JOR`Western Asia	0.255	0.221	0.113	0.218	0.201
144	Republic of the Congo`COG`Middle Africa	0.249	0.102	0.132	0.159	0.103
145	Belarus`BLR`Eastern Europe	0.247	0.100	0.090	0.093	0.281
146	Djibouti`DJI`Eastern Africa	0.245	0.114	0.133	0.138	0.155
147	Gambia`GMB`Western Africa	0.244	0.106	0.140	0.087	0.177
148	Kazakhstan`KAZ`Central Asia	0.234	0.110	0.073	0.110	0.178
149	Ethiopia`ETH`Eastern Africa	0.228	0.102	0.094	0.148	0.149
150	Rwanda`RWA`Eastern Africa	0.226	0.138	0.199	0.203	0.224
151	Sudan`SDN`Northern Africa	0.220	0.064	0.087	0.060	0.059
152	Burundi`BDI`Eastern Africa	0.196	0.063	0.167	0.092	0.126
153	Azerbaijan`AZE`Western Asia	0.193	0.063	0.056	0.062	0.142
154	Iran`IRN`Southern Asia	0.186	0.136	0.048	0.177	0.177
=155	Tajikistan`TJK`Central Asia	0.184	0.042	0.051	0.049	0.086
=155	Yemen`YEM`Western Asia	0.184	0.069	0.090	0.054	0.046
157	Equatorial Guinea`GNQ`Middle Africa	0.178	0.050	0.057	0.060	0.103
158	Oman`OMN`Western Asia	0.172	0.141	0.123	0.070	0.180
159	Cuba`CUB`Caribbean	0.168	0.057	0.045	0.089	0.237
=160	South Sudan`SSD`Eastern Africa	0.166	0.066	0.087	0.047	0.036
=160	Uzbekistan`UZB`Central Asia	0.166	0.036	0.038	0.039	0.130
162	Somalia`SOM`Eastern Africa	0.162	0.123	0.087	0.150	0.062
163	Thailand`THA`South-eastern Asia	0.160	0.105	0.073	0.023	0.147
164	Egypt`EGY`Northern Africa	0.156	0.093	0.052	0.103	0.080
165	Vietnam`VNM`South-eastern Asia	0.148	0.115	0.167	0.178	0.200
166	Bahrain`BHR`Western Asia	0.144	0.051	0.046	0.051	0.117
167	Turkmenistan`TKM`Central Asia	0.143	0.024	0.031	0.031	0.085
168	Syria`SYR`Western Asia	0.136	0.025	0.045	0.017	0.066
169	Eswatini`SWZ`Southern Africa	0.131	0.097	0.121	0.089	0.093
170	United Arab Emirates`ARE`Western Asia	0.095	0.090	0.030	0.086	0.134
171	Laos`LAO`South-eastern Asia	0.090	0.089	0.096	0.046	0.098
172	North Korea`PRK`Eastern Asia	0.085	0.014	0.043	0.009	0.088
173	China`CHN`Eastern Asia	0.082	0.052	0.040	0.149	0.095
174	Eritrea`ERI`Eastern Africa	0.069	0.006	0.010	0.022	0.150
175	Qatar`QAT`Western Asia	0.041	0.089	0.024	0.090	0.114
176	Saudi Arabia`SAU`Western Asia	0.016	0.046	0.029	0.047	0.101

02In 2015

At either end

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

Highest

1Denmark0.921
2Sweden0.915
3Costa Rica0.906
4Norway0.904
5Switzerland0.903

Lowest

176Saudi Arabia0.016
175Qatar0.041
174Eritrea0.069
173China0.082
172North Korea0.085

A higher value is the better result. The middle country reads 0.536. “Shared” marks a value another country also holds.

Each measure’s ends

Liberal democracy (0–1)
HighestDenmark0.894
LowestEritrea0.006
Middle country: 0.389
Participatory democracy (0–1)
HighestSwitzerland0.805
LowestEritrea0.010
Middle country: 0.334
Deliberative democracy (0–1)
HighestDenmark0.881
LowestNorth Korea0.009
Middle country: 0.378
Egalitarian democracy (0–1)
HighestDenmark0.884
LowestSouth Sudan0.036
Middle country: 0.331

032014 → 2015

Since 2014

What changed between 2014 and this one: who joined or left, and how far the headline moved.

+0 / −0countries joined / left
142values changed, of 176 in both
62 · 80rose · fell
34unchanged

Rose most

Fiji0.196 → 0.385+0.189
Sri Lanka0.417 → 0.550+0.133
Guinea-Bissau0.439 → 0.501+0.062
Kosovo0.593 → 0.651+0.058
Namibia0.656 → 0.707+0.051

Fell most

Burkina Faso0.569 → 0.376−0.193
Yemen0.300 → 0.184−0.116
Burundi0.270 → 0.196−0.074
India0.617 → 0.543−0.074
Comoros0.467 → 0.395−0.072

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 2015.
160 distinct values among 176
Values are stored exactly as published, to 3 decimals. 3 countries share 0.883. 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 176 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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176 rows · 8.9 KB · UTF-8, opens in Excel
Opens with 11 lines of source notes; the table starts on row 13.
Download vdem-democracy-2015-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 (2015). V-Dem Electoral Democracy Index, 2015 [data set], describing 2015. As held by Nations Inquiry, https://nationsinquiry.com/datasets/vdem-democracy/2015

0636 held

Other years

‹ The year before
V-Dem Electoral Democracy Index, 2014
176 countries
The year after ›
V-Dem Electoral Democracy Index, 2016
176 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