Data for 2018

V-Dem Electoral Democracy Index, 2018

Name: V-Dem Electoral Democracy Index, 2018
Creator: V-Dem Institute, University of Gothenburg
License: https://v-dem.net/data/the-v-dem-dataset/

2018, as V-Dem Institute’s 2026 release gives it · stored as published, never rewritten

V-Dem Electoral Democracy Index, 2018 covers 176 countries on 5 measures. Denmark is highest, at 0.918; Saudi Arabia is lowest, at 0.015. The middle country reads 0.529. Against 2017, 164 values changed (73 up, 91 down), the same countries are covered.

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V-Dem Electoral Democracy Index · Data for 2018

HighestDenmark

0.918

LowestSaudi Arabia

0.015

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

176countries
5measures per country
2018the 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, 2018, 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, 2018: every country, as published by V-Dem Institute, University of Gothenburg.
derived
1	Denmark`DNK`Northern Europe	0.918	0.890	0.707	0.878	0.881
2	Sweden`SWE`Northern Europe	0.908	0.875	0.653	0.870	0.832
3	Estonia`EST`Northern Europe	0.906	0.863	0.649	0.823	0.817
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	0.833
6	Portugal`PRT`Southern Europe	0.899	0.849	0.640	0.853	0.813
7	Uruguay`URY`South America	0.896	0.836	0.731	0.831	0.793
=8	Costa Rica`CRI`Central America	0.890	0.834	0.658	0.827	0.798
=8	Ireland`IRL`Northern Europe	0.890	0.821	0.636	0.803	0.779
10	New Zealand`NZL`Australia and New Zealand	0.888	0.833	0.695	0.764	0.787
11	Finland`FIN`Northern Europe	0.884	0.849	0.625	0.822	0.812
12	Norway`NOR`Northern Europe	0.883	0.847	0.636	0.854	0.842
13	Germany`DEU`Western Europe	0.881	0.834	0.637	0.843	0.824
14	Netherlands`NLD`Western Europe	0.876	0.830	0.629	0.813	0.799
=15	Iceland`ISL`Northern Europe	0.875	0.793	0.649	0.765	0.811
=15	United Kingdom`GBR`Northern Europe	0.875	0.811	0.646	0.746	0.742
=17	France`FRA`Western Europe	0.874	0.802	0.607	0.808	0.778
=17	Luxembourg`LUX`Western Europe	0.874	0.793	0.631	0.826	0.822
19	Chile`CHL`South America	0.870	0.803	0.573	0.775	0.640
20	Italy`ITA`Southern Europe	0.864	0.787	0.672	0.793	0.784
21	Australia`AUS`Australia and New Zealand	0.860	0.817	0.627	0.788	0.750
22	Greece`GRC`Southern Europe	0.859	0.767	0.625	0.744	0.748
23	South Korea`KOR`Eastern Asia	0.857	0.794	0.597	0.783	0.743
=24	Austria`AUT`Western Europe	0.851	0.776	0.638	0.711	0.753
=24	Spain`ESP`Southern Europe	0.851	0.776	0.601	0.754	0.762
26	Taiwan`TWN`Eastern Asia	0.845	0.739	0.668	0.752	0.748
27	Canada`CAN`Northern America	0.840	0.763	0.582	0.745	0.716
28	Cyprus`CYP`Western Asia	0.836	0.722	0.560	0.715	0.730
=29	Japan`JPN`Eastern Asia	0.832	0.755	0.541	0.728	0.756
=29	Latvia`LVA`Northern Europe	0.832	0.745	0.610	0.675	0.729
31	Slovenia`SVN`Southern Europe	0.830	0.759	0.610	0.745	0.738
32	United States`USA`Northern America	0.824	0.739	0.589	0.625	0.635
33	Lithuania`LTU`Northern Europe	0.818	0.754	0.620	0.616	0.706
34	Slovakia`SVK`Eastern Europe	0.814	0.698	0.599	0.637	0.644
=35	Czechia`CZE`Eastern Europe	0.810	0.708	0.535	0.667	0.719
=35	Peru`PER`South America	0.810	0.698	0.613	0.612	0.521
37	Jamaica`JAM`Caribbean	0.807	0.688	0.551	0.685	0.623
38	Vanuatu`VUT`Melanesia	0.790	0.680	0.478	0.654	0.633
39	Trinidad and Tobago`TTO`Caribbean	0.784	0.670	0.502	0.677	0.646
40	Cabo Verde`CPV`Western Africa	0.783	0.701	0.468	0.584	0.623
41	Argentina`ARG`South America	0.780	0.630	0.520	0.598	0.613
42	Barbados`BRB`Caribbean	0.776	0.656	0.337	0.682	0.634
43	Malta`MLT`Southern Europe	0.754	0.552	0.551	0.613	0.657
44	Brazil`BRA`South America	0.749	0.608	0.484	0.536	0.446
45	Suriname`SUR`South America	0.748	0.609	0.471	0.599	0.545
46	South Africa`ZAF`Southern Africa	0.747	0.640	0.495	0.637	0.488
47	Mauritius`MUS`Eastern Africa	0.739	0.631	0.471	0.630	0.598
48	Ghana`GHA`Western Africa	0.735	0.623	0.378	0.632	0.529
49	Panama`PAN`Central America	0.732	0.539	0.442	0.614	0.459
50	Croatia`HRV`Southern Europe	0.729	0.615	0.513	0.554	0.588
51	Tunisia`TUN`Northern Africa	0.728	0.633	0.490	0.656	0.584
52	Israel`ISR`Western Asia	0.705	0.626	0.447	0.567	0.562
53	Poland`POL`Eastern Europe	0.694	0.524	0.457	0.474	0.604
54	Romania`ROU`Eastern Europe	0.692	0.483	0.479	0.318	0.511
55	Timor-Leste`TLS`South-eastern Asia	0.689	0.502	0.419	0.497	0.431
56	Senegal`SEN`Western Africa	0.688	0.536	0.441	0.551	0.509
57	Namibia`NAM`Southern Africa	0.682	0.562	0.421	0.507	0.406
58	Mexico`MEX`Central America	0.675	0.452	0.428	0.488	0.372
59	Botswana`BWA`Southern Africa	0.672	0.573	0.414	0.560	0.480
=60	Burkina Faso`BFA`Western Africa	0.666	0.485	0.401	0.552	0.443
=60	Colombia`COL`South America	0.666	0.533	0.471	0.473	0.395
62	Guyana`GUY`South America	0.664	0.450	0.407	0.461	0.493
63	Georgia`GEO`Western Asia	0.663	0.514	0.431	0.519	0.539
64	Kosovo`XKX`Southern Europe	0.662	0.470	0.395	0.454	0.460
65	Mongolia`MNG`Eastern Asia	0.653	0.536	0.359	0.539	0.488
66	São Tomé and Príncipe`STP`Middle Africa	0.650	0.531	0.405	0.459	0.454
67	Ecuador`ECU`South America	0.641	0.458	0.443	0.484	0.416
68	Nepal`NPL`Southern Asia	0.633	0.523	0.422	0.437	0.429
69	El Salvador`SLV`Central America	0.631	0.428	0.398	0.410	0.294
70	Solomon Islands`SLB`Melanesia	0.623	0.480	0.369	0.365	0.368
71	Liberia`LBR`Western Africa	0.621	0.425	0.339	0.496	0.408
=72	Bulgaria`BGR`Eastern Europe	0.612	0.508	0.451	0.479	0.476
=72	Sri Lanka`LKA`Southern Asia	0.612	0.481	0.390	0.431	0.412
74	Benin`BEN`Western Africa	0.606	0.472	0.393	0.428	0.459
75	Seychelles`SYC`Eastern Africa	0.605	0.524	0.246	0.513	0.490
76	Guatemala`GTM`Central America	0.602	0.415	0.345	0.313	0.260
77	Lesotho`LSO`Southern Africa	0.601	0.441	0.380	0.460	0.474
78	Indonesia`IDN`South-eastern Asia	0.599	0.463	0.401	0.515	0.389
79	Bolivia`BOL`South America	0.593	0.341	0.440	0.412	0.399
80	Paraguay`PRY`South America	0.583	0.417	0.361	0.350	0.237
81	Bhutan`BTN`Southern Asia	0.579	0.489	0.365	0.510	0.486
82	North Macedonia`MKD`Southern Europe	0.575	0.386	0.394	0.448	0.399
83	Dominican Republic`DOM`Caribbean	0.573	0.339	0.360	0.414	0.301
84	Nigeria`NGA`Western Africa	0.555	0.391	0.372	0.405	0.307
85	Sierra Leone`SLE`Western Africa	0.548	0.380	0.367	0.483	0.344
86	Côte d’Ivoire`CIV`Western Africa	0.540	0.326	0.364	0.474	0.351
87	Gambia`GMB`Western Africa	0.538	0.422	0.345	0.386	0.382
88	Niger`NER`Western Africa	0.530	0.405	0.310	0.488	0.363
89	Malawi`MWI`Eastern Africa	0.528	0.442	0.337	0.404	0.301
=90	Albania`ALB`Southern Europe	0.524	0.432	0.316	0.268	0.374
=90	Armenia`ARM`Western Asia	0.524	0.404	0.341	0.456	0.439
92	Mali`MLI`Western Africa	0.518	0.307	0.310	0.405	0.315
93	Bosnia and Herzegovina`BIH`Southern Europe	0.513	0.340	0.297	0.341	0.368
94	Guinea-Bissau`GNB`Western Africa	0.510	0.307	0.233	0.227	0.272
95	Moldova`MDA`Eastern Europe	0.506	0.390	0.328	0.323	0.373
96	Kenya`KEN`Eastern Africa	0.496	0.394	0.343	0.398	0.321
=97	India`IND`Southern Asia	0.482	0.363	0.296	0.349	0.277
=97	Montenegro`MNE`Southern Europe	0.482	0.378	0.312	0.372	0.395
=99	Hungary`HUN`Eastern Europe	0.481	0.373	0.326	0.265	0.344
=99	Madagascar`MDG`Eastern Africa	0.481	0.268	0.297	0.290	0.232
101	Kyrgyzstan`KGZ`Central Asia	0.467	0.327	0.274	0.375	0.325
102	Papua New Guinea`PNG`Melanesia	0.457	0.351	0.275	0.240	0.251
103	Philippines`PHL`South-eastern Asia	0.450	0.295	0.306	0.372	0.214
104	Malaysia`MYS`South-eastern Asia	0.444	0.319	0.279	0.336	0.334
105	Lebanon`LBN`Western Asia	0.440	0.282	0.239	0.290	0.242
106	Ukraine`UKR`Eastern Europe	0.430	0.244	0.274	0.374	0.285
107	Haiti`HTI`Caribbean	0.429	0.257	0.256	0.272	0.138
108	Togo`TGO`Western Africa	0.428	0.212	0.199	0.332	0.320
109	Singapore`SGP`South-eastern Asia	0.409	0.336	0.115	0.339	0.349
110	Central African Republic`CAF`Middle Africa	0.406	0.249	0.176	0.228	0.198
111	Fiji`FJI`Melanesia	0.403	0.280	0.196	0.294	0.299
=112	Mozambique`MOZ`Eastern Africa	0.400	0.264	0.256	0.271	0.257
=112	Somaliland`XSL`Eastern Africa	0.400	0.248	0.243	0.252	0.158
114	Iraq`IRQ`Western Asia	0.398	0.238	0.264	0.306	0.210
115	Myanmar`MMR`South-eastern Asia	0.397	0.232	0.244	0.325	0.231
116	Pakistan`PAK`Southern Asia	0.395	0.250	0.255	0.298	0.134
=117	Maldives`MDV`Southern Asia	0.391	0.196	0.237	0.134	0.270
=117	Mauritania`MRT`Western Africa	0.391	0.172	0.216	0.234	0.163
119	Gabon`GAB`Middle Africa	0.386	0.212	0.265	0.283	0.293
120	Tanzania`TZA`Eastern Africa	0.385	0.331	0.259	0.321	0.323
121	Guinea`GIN`Western Africa	0.373	0.158	0.238	0.158	0.212
122	Zambia`ZMB`Eastern Africa	0.370	0.294	0.261	0.309	0.253
123	Comoros`COM`Eastern Africa	0.367	0.176	0.250	0.230	0.259
124	Honduras`HND`Central America	0.361	0.233	0.245	0.250	0.146
125	Serbia`SRB`Southern Europe	0.354	0.283	0.233	0.236	0.305
126	Angola`AGO`Middle Africa	0.350	0.161	0.097	0.167	0.131
127	Afghanistan`AFG`Southern Asia	0.330	0.176	0.150	0.249	0.179
128	Kuwait`KWT`Western Asia	0.320	0.286	0.093	0.298	0.245
129	Hong Kong`HKG`Eastern Asia	0.318	0.281	0.116	0.250	0.290
130	Zimbabwe`ZWE`Eastern Africa	0.313	0.216	0.248	0.234	0.185
131	DR Congo`COD`Middle Africa	0.306	0.117	0.205	0.124	0.181
132	Algeria`DZA`Northern Africa	0.305	0.161	0.113	0.218	0.252
133	Türkiye`TUR`Western Asia	0.295	0.104	0.196	0.092	0.228
134	Cameroon`CMR`Middle Africa	0.293	0.120	0.111	0.111	0.190
135	Uganda`UGA`Eastern Africa	0.283	0.194	0.211	0.262	0.169
136	Ethiopia`ETH`Eastern Africa	0.271	0.131	0.108	0.231	0.189
137	Libya`LBY`Northern Africa	0.268	0.153	0.164	0.240	0.177
138	Chad`TCD`Middle Africa	0.267	0.079	0.127	0.133	0.098
139	Russia`RUS`Eastern Europe	0.264	0.107	0.152	0.160	0.201
140	Morocco`MAR`Northern Africa	0.262	0.243	0.163	0.247	0.185
141	Jordan`JOR`Western Asia	0.261	0.242	0.118	0.215	0.230
142	Republic of the Congo`COG`Middle Africa	0.258	0.109	0.192	0.163	0.129
=143	Bangladesh`BGD`Southern Asia	0.252	0.097	0.108	0.105	0.095
=143	Belarus`BLR`Eastern Europe	0.252	0.109	0.099	0.097	0.270
145	Djibouti`DJI`Eastern Africa	0.250	0.113	0.134	0.154	0.172
146	Kazakhstan`KAZ`Central Asia	0.232	0.108	0.073	0.108	0.176
147	Sudan`SDN`Northern Africa	0.227	0.068	0.090	0.068	0.076
148	Rwanda`RWA`Eastern Africa	0.226	0.118	0.196	0.211	0.201
149	Nicaragua`NIC`Central America	0.221	0.051	0.129	0.027	0.118
150	Venezuela`VEN`South America	0.213	0.061	0.156	0.039	0.122
151	Cambodia`KHM`South-eastern Asia	0.211	0.070	0.076	0.075	0.088
152	Azerbaijan`AZE`Western Asia	0.192	0.058	0.057	0.052	0.124
153	Uzbekistan`UZB`Central Asia	0.189	0.065	0.056	0.184	0.135
154	Iran`IRN`Southern Asia	0.182	0.131	0.046	0.142	0.175
=155	Cuba`CUB`Caribbean	0.177	0.061	0.050	0.101	0.233
=155	Equatorial Guinea`GNQ`Middle Africa	0.177	0.052	0.053	0.061	0.106
=157	Egypt`EGY`Northern Africa	0.176	0.112	0.061	0.096	0.100
=157	Oman`OMN`Western Asia	0.176	0.141	0.125	0.067	0.185
159	Thailand`THA`South-eastern Asia	0.170	0.110	0.100	0.030	0.145
160	Tajikistan`TJK`Central Asia	0.164	0.044	0.052	0.037	0.070
161	Vietnam`VNM`South-eastern Asia	0.161	0.113	0.170	0.187	0.189
162	Burundi`BDI`Eastern Africa	0.157	0.044	0.145	0.052	0.099
163	Somalia`SOM`Eastern Africa	0.154	0.106	0.083	0.165	0.073
164	South Sudan`SSD`Eastern Africa	0.153	0.053	0.052	0.056	0.029
165	Turkmenistan`TKM`Central Asia	0.149	0.028	0.031	0.033	0.075
166	Syria`SYR`Western Asia	0.135	0.025	0.053	0.018	0.069
167	Eswatini`SWZ`Southern Africa	0.132	0.115	0.118	0.105	0.083
168	Bahrain`BHR`Western Asia	0.130	0.052	0.041	0.041	0.119
169	Laos`LAO`South-eastern Asia	0.125	0.090	0.107	0.066	0.104
170	Yemen`YEM`Western Asia	0.113	0.034	0.068	0.028	0.023
171	United Arab Emirates`ARE`Western Asia	0.096	0.093	0.028	0.076	0.134
172	North Korea`PRK`Eastern Asia	0.085	0.014	0.043	0.008	0.089
173	China`CHN`Eastern Asia	0.076	0.048	0.037	0.128	0.094
174	Eritrea`ERI`Eastern Africa	0.068	0.007	0.009	0.023	0.120
175	Qatar`QAT`Western Asia	0.042	0.088	0.020	0.091	0.118
176	Saudi Arabia`SAU`Western Asia	0.015	0.042	0.025	0.044	0.105

02In 2018

At either end

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

Highest

1Denmark0.918
2Sweden0.908
3Estonia0.906
4Switzerland0.902
5Belgium0.900

Lowest

176Saudi Arabia0.015
175Qatar0.042
174Eritrea0.068
173China0.076
172North Korea0.085

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)
HighestDenmark0.890
LowestEritrea0.007
Middle country: 0.388
Participatory democracy (0–1)
HighestSwitzerland0.803
LowestEritrea0.009
Middle country: 0.337
Deliberative democracy (0–1)
HighestDenmark0.878
LowestNorth Korea0.008
Middle country: 0.381
Egalitarian democracy (0–1)
HighestDenmark0.881
LowestYemen0.023
Middle country: 0.347

032017 → 2018

Since 2017

What changed between 2017 and this one: who joined or left, and how far the headline moved.

+0 / −0countries joined / left
164values changed, of 176 in both
73 · 91rose · fell
12unchanged

Rose most

Armenia0.381 → 0.524+0.143
Malaysia0.333 → 0.444+0.111
Lesotho0.501 → 0.601+0.100
Ecuador0.552 → 0.641+0.089
Kosovo0.574 → 0.662+0.088

Fell most

Benin0.713 → 0.606−0.107
Hungary0.555 → 0.481−0.074
Nicaragua0.281 → 0.221−0.060
Honduras0.414 → 0.361−0.053
El Salvador0.672 → 0.631−0.041

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 2018.
160 distinct values among 176
Values are stored exactly as published, to 3 decimals. 2 countries share 0.890. 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-2018-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 (2018). V-Dem Electoral Democracy Index, 2018 [data set], describing 2018. As held by Nations Inquiry, https://nationsinquiry.com/datasets/vdem-democracy/2018

0636 held

Other years

‹ The year before
V-Dem Electoral Democracy Index, 2017
176 countries
The year after ›
V-Dem Electoral Democracy Index, 2019
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