Data for 2017

V-Dem Electoral Democracy Index, 2017

Name: V-Dem Electoral Democracy Index, 2017
Creator: V-Dem Institute, University of Gothenburg
License: https://v-dem.net/data/the-v-dem-dataset/

2017, as V-Dem Institute’s 2026 release gives it · stored as published, never rewritten

V-Dem Electoral Democracy Index, 2017 covers 176 countries on 5 measures. Denmark is highest, at 0.918; Saudi Arabia is lowest, at 0.014. The middle country reads 0.540. Against 2016, 162 values changed (63 up, 99 down), the same countries are covered.

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V-Dem Electoral Democracy Index · Data for 2017

HighestDenmark

0.918

LowestSaudi Arabia

0.014

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

176countries
5measures per country
2017the year it describes
166distinct 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, 2017, 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, 2017: every country, as published by V-Dem Institute, University of Gothenburg.
derived
1	Denmark`DNK`Northern Europe	0.918	0.891	0.707	0.881	0.875
2	Sweden`SWE`Northern Europe	0.914	0.880	0.654	0.876	0.835
3	Estonia`EST`Northern Europe	0.907	0.861	0.644	0.824	0.816
4	Switzerland`CHE`Western Europe	0.902	0.860	0.803	0.872	0.837
5	Belgium`BEL`Western Europe	0.900	0.836	0.645	0.807	0.834
=6	Costa Rica`CRI`Central America	0.898	0.850	0.666	0.844	0.808
=6	Portugal`PRT`Southern Europe	0.898	0.848	0.641	0.847	0.813
8	Uruguay`URY`South America	0.890	0.828	0.735	0.816	0.786
=9	Chile`CHL`South America	0.889	0.842	0.590	0.801	0.664
=9	Germany`DEU`Western Europe	0.889	0.842	0.644	0.855	0.832
11	Norway`NOR`Northern Europe	0.888	0.855	0.640	0.861	0.842
12	Ireland`IRL`Northern Europe	0.887	0.821	0.637	0.801	0.780
13	France`FRA`Western Europe	0.886	0.817	0.623	0.816	0.792
14	New Zealand`NZL`Australia and New Zealand	0.879	0.822	0.692	0.758	0.778
15	Netherlands`NLD`Western Europe	0.878	0.833	0.634	0.809	0.809
16	Luxembourg`LUX`Western Europe	0.874	0.793	0.632	0.826	0.823
17	Finland`FIN`Northern Europe	0.873	0.836	0.615	0.810	0.806
18	Australia`AUS`Australia and New Zealand	0.871	0.828	0.636	0.797	0.761
19	Italy`ITA`Southern Europe	0.870	0.797	0.689	0.807	0.804
20	Greece`GRC`Southern Europe	0.868	0.775	0.632	0.746	0.779
21	United Kingdom`GBR`Northern Europe	0.865	0.801	0.639	0.736	0.749
22	Iceland`ISL`Northern Europe	0.861	0.779	0.636	0.755	0.794
23	South Korea`KOR`Eastern Asia	0.852	0.791	0.593	0.781	0.735
24	Austria`AUT`Western Europe	0.851	0.782	0.642	0.747	0.749
25	Taiwan`TWN`Eastern Asia	0.845	0.737	0.630	0.745	0.747
=26	Cyprus`CYP`Western Asia	0.840	0.731	0.567	0.702	0.731
=26	Slovenia`SVN`Southern Europe	0.840	0.772	0.622	0.741	0.748
28	Canada`CAN`Northern America	0.839	0.769	0.579	0.744	0.712
=29	Slovakia`SVK`Eastern Europe	0.835	0.720	0.618	0.645	0.663
=29	Spain`ESP`Southern Europe	0.835	0.757	0.586	0.730	0.729
31	United States`USA`Northern America	0.834	0.749	0.599	0.625	0.653
=32	Czechia`CZE`Eastern Europe	0.833	0.726	0.563	0.687	0.740
=32	Latvia`LVA`Northern Europe	0.833	0.744	0.631	0.681	0.724
34	Japan`JPN`Eastern Asia	0.821	0.744	0.536	0.729	0.743
35	Jamaica`JAM`Caribbean	0.811	0.696	0.554	0.700	0.633
36	Lithuania`LTU`Northern Europe	0.808	0.753	0.610	0.642	0.700
37	Cabo Verde`CPV`Western Africa	0.797	0.707	0.477	0.620	0.631
38	Vanuatu`VUT`Melanesia	0.793	0.682	0.478	0.641	0.628
39	Trinidad and Tobago`TTO`Caribbean	0.791	0.676	0.507	0.688	0.655
40	Peru`PER`South America	0.789	0.677	0.554	0.620	0.503
41	Brazil`BRA`South America	0.774	0.641	0.507	0.581	0.482
42	Barbados`BRB`Caribbean	0.773	0.660	0.338	0.595	0.628
43	Malta`MLT`Southern Europe	0.761	0.558	0.557	0.618	0.663
44	Argentina`ARG`South America	0.751	0.609	0.500	0.579	0.577
45	Suriname`SUR`South America	0.748	0.626	0.470	0.598	0.550
=46	Croatia`HRV`Southern Europe	0.739	0.623	0.517	0.574	0.580
=46	Ghana`GHA`Western Africa	0.739	0.628	0.381	0.613	0.526
48	South Africa`ZAF`Southern Africa	0.738	0.626	0.489	0.626	0.497
49	Panama`PAN`Central America	0.736	0.553	0.464	0.617	0.474
50	Mauritius`MUS`Eastern Africa	0.732	0.622	0.470	0.620	0.599
51	Tunisia`TUN`Northern Africa	0.725	0.632	0.405	0.656	0.581
52	Israel`ISR`Western Asia	0.714	0.632	0.454	0.573	0.569
53	Benin`BEN`Western Africa	0.713	0.593	0.475	0.580	0.538
54	Namibia`NAM`Southern Africa	0.709	0.577	0.437	0.552	0.470
55	Senegal`SEN`Western Africa	0.701	0.556	0.452	0.577	0.531
56	Poland`POL`Eastern Europe	0.698	0.542	0.459	0.467	0.607
57	Romania`ROU`Eastern Europe	0.695	0.532	0.452	0.330	0.516
58	Burkina Faso`BFA`Western Africa	0.683	0.511	0.414	0.570	0.431
59	Colombia`COL`South America	0.680	0.548	0.483	0.557	0.416
60	Botswana`BWA`Southern Africa	0.675	0.568	0.407	0.539	0.480
61	El Salvador`SLV`Central America	0.672	0.465	0.416	0.444	0.323
62	Timor-Leste`TLS`South-eastern Asia	0.671	0.489	0.402	0.477	0.420
63	Georgia`GEO`Western Asia	0.669	0.498	0.432	0.534	0.552
64	Mongolia`MNG`Eastern Asia	0.661	0.544	0.367	0.552	0.505
=65	Guyana`GUY`South America	0.660	0.457	0.410	0.409	0.485
=65	Nepal`NPL`Southern Asia	0.660	0.553	0.442	0.449	0.456
67	São Tomé and Príncipe`STP`Middle Africa	0.647	0.537	0.402	0.458	0.454
68	Mexico`MEX`Central America	0.638	0.440	0.407	0.495	0.333
69	Indonesia`IDN`South-eastern Asia	0.627	0.484	0.418	0.538	0.411
70	Bulgaria`BGR`Eastern Europe	0.624	0.521	0.454	0.483	0.482
71	Guatemala`GTM`Central America	0.621	0.444	0.356	0.378	0.259
72	Liberia`LBR`Western Africa	0.620	0.459	0.339	0.494	0.408
73	Solomon Islands`SLB`Melanesia	0.616	0.477	0.365	0.367	0.367
74	Bolivia`BOL`South America	0.609	0.360	0.454	0.425	0.408
75	Seychelles`SYC`Eastern Africa	0.599	0.509	0.243	0.500	0.481
76	Paraguay`PRY`South America	0.596	0.418	0.372	0.325	0.244
77	Sri Lanka`LKA`Southern Asia	0.591	0.448	0.385	0.464	0.393
78	Kosovo`XKX`Southern Europe	0.574	0.399	0.341	0.387	0.406
79	Bhutan`BTN`Southern Asia	0.571	0.480	0.361	0.489	0.479
80	Dominican Republic`DOM`Caribbean	0.559	0.328	0.347	0.405	0.294
81	Nigeria`NGA`Western Africa	0.556	0.393	0.374	0.416	0.309
82	Hungary`HUN`Eastern Europe	0.555	0.432	0.379	0.317	0.422
83	Ecuador`ECU`South America	0.552	0.338	0.378	0.437	0.390
84	North Macedonia`MKD`Southern Europe	0.548	0.376	0.361	0.430	0.376
85	Malawi`MWI`Eastern Africa	0.546	0.457	0.355	0.406	0.333
86	Niger`NER`Western Africa	0.542	0.426	0.343	0.498	0.377
87	Bosnia and Herzegovina`BIH`Southern Europe	0.541	0.355	0.314	0.366	0.386
88	Mali`MLI`Western Africa	0.540	0.328	0.326	0.426	0.345
89	Côte d’Ivoire`CIV`Western Africa	0.539	0.326	0.365	0.471	0.353
90	Albania`ALB`Southern Europe	0.536	0.437	0.324	0.276	0.378
91	Sierra Leone`SLE`Western Africa	0.520	0.346	0.347	0.451	0.314
92	Kenya`KEN`Eastern Africa	0.512	0.408	0.359	0.408	0.322
93	Moldova`MDA`Eastern Europe	0.503	0.394	0.325	0.321	0.364
94	Lesotho`LSO`Southern Africa	0.501	0.372	0.318	0.374	0.421
95	Gambia`GMB`Western Africa	0.498	0.393	0.306	0.350	0.340
96	Guinea-Bissau`GNB`Western Africa	0.490	0.286	0.215	0.221	0.276
97	India`IND`Southern Asia	0.488	0.371	0.298	0.353	0.287
98	Madagascar`MDG`Eastern Africa	0.478	0.260	0.302	0.276	0.239
99	Montenegro`MNE`Southern Europe	0.474	0.375	0.315	0.376	0.387
100	Lebanon`LBN`Western Asia	0.470	0.294	0.257	0.321	0.256
101	Philippines`PHL`South-eastern Asia	0.469	0.321	0.317	0.385	0.223
102	Kyrgyzstan`KGZ`Central Asia	0.449	0.303	0.274	0.361	0.313
103	Papua New Guinea`PNG`Melanesia	0.447	0.344	0.269	0.235	0.249
104	Togo`TGO`Western Africa	0.442	0.239	0.163	0.332	0.328
105	Ukraine`UKR`Eastern Europe	0.430	0.240	0.279	0.357	0.294
106	Singapore`SGP`South-eastern Asia	0.425	0.345	0.119	0.348	0.352
107	Pakistan`PAK`Southern Asia	0.419	0.257	0.260	0.288	0.143
108	Haiti`HTI`Caribbean	0.418	0.251	0.251	0.267	0.133
109	Honduras`HND`Central America	0.414	0.244	0.270	0.272	0.160
110	Somaliland`XSL`Eastern Africa	0.413	0.254	0.250	0.259	0.160
111	Mozambique`MOZ`Eastern Africa	0.408	0.275	0.260	0.289	0.259
112	Myanmar`MMR`South-eastern Asia	0.402	0.229	0.242	0.324	0.227
113	Tanzania`TZA`Eastern Africa	0.401	0.351	0.261	0.341	0.343
114	Fiji`FJI`Melanesia	0.400	0.283	0.201	0.296	0.294
115	Gabon`GAB`Middle Africa	0.398	0.233	0.275	0.309	0.293
116	Central African Republic`CAF`Middle Africa	0.396	0.231	0.176	0.229	0.184
117	Mauritania`MRT`Western Africa	0.389	0.157	0.167	0.219	0.154
118	Armenia`ARM`Western Asia	0.381	0.219	0.247	0.261	0.300
119	Comoros`COM`Eastern Africa	0.380	0.194	0.259	0.267	0.270
120	Serbia`SRB`Southern Europe	0.376	0.290	0.249	0.261	0.306
121	Iraq`IRQ`Western Asia	0.375	0.233	0.247	0.256	0.191
122	Guinea`GIN`Western Africa	0.369	0.161	0.234	0.149	0.212
123	Zambia`ZMB`Eastern Africa	0.360	0.294	0.232	0.274	0.248
124	Maldives`MDV`Southern Asia	0.353	0.178	0.222	0.172	0.251
125	Afghanistan`AFG`Southern Asia	0.334	0.183	0.126	0.220	0.184
126	Malaysia`MYS`South-eastern Asia	0.333	0.206	0.227	0.257	0.232
127	Kuwait`KWT`Western Asia	0.326	0.288	0.099	0.300	0.250
128	Hong Kong`HKG`Eastern Asia	0.325	0.289	0.122	0.269	0.293
129	Algeria`DZA`Northern Africa	0.309	0.160	0.104	0.231	0.265
130	Angola`AGO`Middle Africa	0.307	0.139	0.072	0.124	0.111
131	DR Congo`COD`Middle Africa	0.304	0.110	0.205	0.128	0.176
132	Zimbabwe`ZWE`Eastern Africa	0.300	0.225	0.240	0.241	0.184
133	Cameroon`CMR`Middle Africa	0.298	0.131	0.109	0.116	0.197
134	Uganda`UGA`Eastern Africa	0.291	0.201	0.213	0.269	0.177
135	Türkiye`TUR`Western Asia	0.290	0.101	0.194	0.096	0.227
136	Nicaragua`NIC`Central America	0.281	0.103	0.162	0.123	0.140
137	Libya`LBY`Northern Africa	0.273	0.167	0.167	0.228	0.182
=138	Bangladesh`BGD`Southern Asia	0.265	0.106	0.119	0.140	0.104
=138	Chad`TCD`Middle Africa	0.265	0.084	0.128	0.117	0.098
140	Jordan`JOR`Western Asia	0.263	0.230	0.120	0.204	0.221
141	Russia`RUS`Eastern Europe	0.261	0.107	0.148	0.151	0.204
142	Morocco`MAR`Northern Africa	0.259	0.241	0.162	0.247	0.183
143	Belarus`BLR`Eastern Europe	0.254	0.107	0.101	0.097	0.282
144	Republic of the Congo`COG`Middle Africa	0.252	0.103	0.186	0.161	0.104
145	Djibouti`DJI`Eastern Africa	0.243	0.110	0.132	0.138	0.160
146	Kazakhstan`KAZ`Central Asia	0.235	0.112	0.069	0.112	0.184
147	Cambodia`KHM`South-eastern Asia	0.234	0.078	0.091	0.091	0.093
148	Venezuela`VEN`South America	0.233	0.082	0.168	0.047	0.153
149	Ethiopia`ETH`Eastern Africa	0.228	0.098	0.093	0.145	0.156
150	Sudan`SDN`Northern Africa	0.226	0.074	0.090	0.082	0.066
151	Rwanda`RWA`Eastern Africa	0.222	0.116	0.197	0.210	0.201
152	Azerbaijan`AZE`Western Asia	0.202	0.067	0.068	0.063	0.130
153	Uzbekistan`UZB`Central Asia	0.191	0.052	0.048	0.145	0.140
154	Iran`IRN`Southern Asia	0.185	0.134	0.048	0.161	0.165
155	Egypt`EGY`Northern Africa	0.178	0.113	0.061	0.097	0.095
156	Oman`OMN`Western Asia	0.176	0.140	0.124	0.067	0.185
157	Equatorial Guinea`GNQ`Middle Africa	0.174	0.049	0.054	0.061	0.106
=158	Cuba`CUB`Caribbean	0.168	0.058	0.044	0.081	0.233
=158	Tajikistan`TJK`Central Asia	0.168	0.040	0.057	0.042	0.069
160	Somalia`SOM`Eastern Africa	0.167	0.123	0.091	0.166	0.076
=161	Burundi`BDI`Eastern Africa	0.157	0.045	0.135	0.040	0.110
=161	South Sudan`SSD`Eastern Africa	0.157	0.059	0.051	0.052	0.031
163	Thailand`THA`South-eastern Asia	0.154	0.102	0.095	0.027	0.140
164	Vietnam`VNM`South-eastern Asia	0.150	0.115	0.166	0.183	0.197
165	Turkmenistan`TKM`Central Asia	0.147	0.027	0.031	0.038	0.073
166	Syria`SYR`Western Asia	0.137	0.025	0.044	0.020	0.070
167	Bahrain`BHR`Western Asia	0.133	0.050	0.042	0.047	0.123
168	Eswatini`SWZ`Southern Africa	0.132	0.099	0.122	0.091	0.096
169	Laos`LAO`South-eastern Asia	0.124	0.093	0.103	0.066	0.103
170	Yemen`YEM`Western Asia	0.112	0.036	0.069	0.025	0.022
171	United Arab Emirates`ARE`Western Asia	0.095	0.091	0.028	0.086	0.135
172	North Korea`PRK`Eastern Asia	0.085	0.014	0.043	0.009	0.091
173	China`CHN`Eastern Asia	0.078	0.052	0.040	0.138	0.098
174	Eritrea`ERI`Eastern Africa	0.069	0.007	0.009	0.021	0.151
175	Qatar`QAT`Western Asia	0.041	0.085	0.021	0.091	0.111
176	Saudi Arabia`SAU`Western Asia	0.014	0.043	0.025	0.043	0.108

02In 2017

At either end

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

Highest

1Denmark0.918
2Sweden0.914
3Estonia0.907
4Switzerland0.902
5Belgium0.900

Lowest

176Saudi Arabia0.014
175Qatar0.041
174Eritrea0.069
173China0.078
172North Korea0.085

A higher value is the better result. The middle country reads 0.540. “Shared” marks a value another country also holds.

Each measure’s ends

Liberal democracy (0–1)
HighestDenmark0.891
LowestEritrea0.007
Middle country: 0.374
Participatory democracy (0–1)
HighestSwitzerland0.803
LowestEritrea0.009
Middle country: 0.332
Deliberative democracy (0–1)
HighestDenmark0.881
LowestNorth Korea0.009
Middle country: 0.375
Egalitarian democracy (0–1)
HighestDenmark0.875
LowestYemen0.022
Middle country: 0.342

032016 → 2017

Since 2016

What changed between 2016 and this one: who joined or left, and how far the headline moved.

+0 / −0countries joined / left
162values changed, of 176 in both
63 · 99rose · fell
14unchanged

Rose most

Gambia0.250 → 0.498+0.248
South Korea0.718 → 0.852+0.134
North Macedonia0.449 → 0.548+0.099
Timor-Leste0.628 → 0.671+0.043
Armenia0.348 → 0.381+0.033

Fell most

Kosovo0.653 → 0.574−0.079
Lesotho0.576 → 0.501−0.075
Venezuela0.293 → 0.233−0.060
Hungary0.613 → 0.555−0.058
United States0.885 → 0.834−0.051

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 2017.
166 distinct values among 176
Values are stored exactly as published, to 3 decimals. 2 countries share 0.898. 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-2017-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 (2017). V-Dem Electoral Democracy Index, 2017 [data set], describing 2017. As held by Nations Inquiry, https://nationsinquiry.com/datasets/vdem-democracy/2017

0636 held

Other years

‹ The year before
V-Dem Electoral Democracy Index, 2016
176 countries
The year after ›
V-Dem Electoral Democracy Index, 2018
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