Data for 2020

V-Dem Electoral Democracy Index, 2020

Name: V-Dem Electoral Democracy Index, 2020
Creator: V-Dem Institute, University of Gothenburg
License: https://v-dem.net/data/the-v-dem-dataset/

2020, as V-Dem Institute’s 2026 release gives it · stored as published, never rewritten

V-Dem Electoral Democracy Index, 2020 covers 176 countries on 5 measures. Denmark is highest, at 0.915; Saudi Arabia is lowest, at 0.014. The middle country reads 0.531. Against 2019, 159 values changed (66 up, 93 down), the same countries are covered.

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V-Dem Electoral Democracy Index · Data for 2020

HighestDenmark

0.915

LowestSaudi Arabia

0.014

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

176countries
5measures per country
2020the year it describes
162distinct 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, 2020, 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, 2020: every country, as published by V-Dem Institute, University of Gothenburg.
derived
1	Denmark`DNK`Northern Europe	0.915	0.882	0.701	0.876	0.876
2	Switzerland`CHE`Western Europe	0.902	0.856	0.799	0.872	0.838
3	Sweden`SWE`Northern Europe	0.901	0.868	0.647	0.851	0.824
=4	Belgium`BEL`Western Europe	0.897	0.826	0.640	0.821	0.828
=4	Estonia`EST`Northern Europe	0.897	0.842	0.635	0.712	0.813
6	Costa Rica`CRI`Central America	0.895	0.844	0.653	0.840	0.803
7	Ireland`IRL`Northern Europe	0.891	0.824	0.641	0.800	0.780
8	Norway`NOR`Northern Europe	0.888	0.840	0.635	0.858	0.844
9	Portugal`PRT`Southern Europe	0.886	0.806	0.612	0.807	0.783
10	New Zealand`NZL`Australia and New Zealand	0.882	0.826	0.681	0.759	0.775
11	Finland`FIN`Northern Europe	0.880	0.844	0.624	0.823	0.802
12	Spain`ESP`Southern Europe	0.874	0.786	0.624	0.767	0.788
13	Luxembourg`LUX`Western Europe	0.872	0.786	0.617	0.827	0.806
14	United Kingdom`GBR`Northern Europe	0.871	0.800	0.642	0.746	0.737
15	Germany`DEU`Western Europe	0.870	0.821	0.629	0.834	0.801
16	Uruguay`URY`South America	0.867	0.808	0.701	0.759	0.756
17	France`FRA`Western Europe	0.866	0.789	0.606	0.793	0.755
18	Netherlands`NLD`Western Europe	0.864	0.813	0.586	0.811	0.774
19	Iceland`ISL`Northern Europe	0.859	0.784	0.635	0.794	0.782
20	Austria`AUT`Western Europe	0.858	0.786	0.631	0.743	0.767
21	Italy`ITA`Southern Europe	0.857	0.774	0.680	0.777	0.768
22	South Korea`KOR`Eastern Asia	0.850	0.782	0.584	0.777	0.740
23	Canada`CAN`Northern America	0.849	0.745	0.590	0.715	0.718
24	Slovakia`SVK`Eastern Europe	0.840	0.757	0.614	0.676	0.658
=25	Australia`AUS`Australia and New Zealand	0.837	0.790	0.602	0.758	0.713
=25	Chile`CHL`South America	0.837	0.766	0.597	0.736	0.596
27	Japan`JPN`Eastern Asia	0.831	0.742	0.532	0.743	0.764
28	Latvia`LVA`Northern Europe	0.822	0.737	0.603	0.669	0.701
29	Taiwan`TWN`Eastern Asia	0.820	0.719	0.631	0.734	0.735
30	Peru`PER`South America	0.818	0.706	0.609	0.616	0.517
31	United States`USA`Northern America	0.815	0.734	0.581	0.587	0.625
32	Barbados`BRB`Caribbean	0.811	0.692	0.357	0.718	0.683
33	Jamaica`JAM`Caribbean	0.808	0.702	0.543	0.675	0.653
34	Cyprus`CYP`Western Asia	0.807	0.691	0.531	0.629	0.704
35	Czechia`CZE`Eastern Europe	0.806	0.709	0.526	0.638	0.716
36	Romania`ROU`Eastern Europe	0.805	0.676	0.605	0.466	0.601
37	Lithuania`LTU`Northern Europe	0.802	0.745	0.609	0.665	0.697
38	Argentina`ARG`South America	0.797	0.634	0.537	0.647	0.625
39	Cabo Verde`CPV`Western Africa	0.793	0.701	0.487	0.597	0.628
=40	Greece`GRC`Southern Europe	0.788	0.669	0.559	0.685	0.671
=40	Trinidad and Tobago`TTO`Caribbean	0.788	0.672	0.499	0.687	0.657
42	Armenia`ARM`Western Asia	0.781	0.576	0.507	0.624	0.641
43	Vanuatu`VUT`Melanesia	0.780	0.659	0.476	0.618	0.604
44	Malta`MLT`Southern Europe	0.767	0.605	0.546	0.614	0.676
45	Croatia`HRV`Southern Europe	0.756	0.647	0.525	0.572	0.600
46	Suriname`SUR`South America	0.754	0.628	0.480	0.555	0.540
47	Slovenia`SVN`Southern Europe	0.752	0.665	0.532	0.591	0.621
48	Senegal`SEN`Western Africa	0.728	0.563	0.463	0.608	0.541
49	Israel`ISR`Western Asia	0.723	0.639	0.456	0.587	0.579
50	Panama`PAN`Central America	0.721	0.533	0.433	0.563	0.447
51	South Africa`ZAF`Southern Africa	0.719	0.604	0.463	0.631	0.494
52	Ghana`GHA`Western Africa	0.718	0.604	0.349	0.598	0.515
53	Tunisia`TUN`Northern Africa	0.712	0.623	0.472	0.639	0.574
54	Brazil`BRA`South America	0.699	0.534	0.445	0.484	0.397
55	Timor-Leste`TLS`South-eastern Asia	0.679	0.492	0.412	0.479	0.426
56	Kosovo`XKX`Southern Europe	0.670	0.493	0.404	0.456	0.470
57	Seychelles`SYC`Eastern Africa	0.666	0.575	0.281	0.573	0.535
58	Mexico`MEX`Central America	0.664	0.406	0.405	0.412	0.365
59	Burkina Faso`BFA`Western Africa	0.662	0.486	0.397	0.542	0.423
60	São Tomé and Príncipe`STP`Middle Africa	0.660	0.557	0.415	0.444	0.463
61	Dominican Republic`DOM`Caribbean	0.656	0.449	0.436	0.560	0.353
62	Solomon Islands`SLB`Melanesia	0.655	0.494	0.405	0.379	0.393
63	Moldova`MDA`Eastern Europe	0.651	0.518	0.447	0.453	0.492
64	Colombia`COL`South America	0.643	0.496	0.447	0.393	0.349
65	Liberia`LBR`Western Africa	0.633	0.419	0.344	0.508	0.416
66	Namibia`NAM`Southern Africa	0.632	0.516	0.381	0.466	0.373
67	Mongolia`MNG`Eastern Asia	0.629	0.523	0.330	0.483	0.463
68	Lesotho`LSO`Southern Africa	0.627	0.505	0.387	0.518	0.493
69	Ecuador`ECU`South America	0.626	0.481	0.437	0.437	0.404
=70	Georgia`GEO`Western Asia	0.616	0.470	0.388	0.502	0.506
=70	Poland`POL`Eastern Europe	0.616	0.450	0.397	0.394	0.530
72	Bulgaria`BGR`Eastern Europe	0.607	0.501	0.444	0.493	0.451
=73	Bhutan`BTN`Southern Asia	0.598	0.515	0.378	0.525	0.510
=73	Nepal`NPL`Southern Asia	0.598	0.477	0.390	0.387	0.387
=73	North Macedonia`MKD`Southern Europe	0.598	0.400	0.407	0.447	0.407
=76	Botswana`BWA`Southern Africa	0.589	0.484	0.360	0.498	0.438
=76	Guatemala`GTM`Central America	0.589	0.402	0.355	0.336	0.260
78	Maldives`MDV`Southern Asia	0.581	0.429	0.324	0.442	0.401
79	Sri Lanka`LKA`Southern Asia	0.579	0.379	0.344	0.334	0.385
80	Paraguay`PRY`South America	0.578	0.420	0.354	0.351	0.242
81	Indonesia`IDN`South-eastern Asia	0.566	0.411	0.376	0.496	0.308
82	Sierra Leone`SLE`Western Africa	0.561	0.426	0.375	0.512	0.379
83	Guyana`GUY`South America	0.555	0.386	0.336	0.359	0.409
84	Ukraine`UKR`Eastern Europe	0.552	0.325	0.349	0.438	0.383
85	Mauritius`MUS`Eastern Africa	0.549	0.451	0.346	0.458	0.435
86	Niger`NER`Western Africa	0.544	0.401	0.357	0.503	0.362
87	Malawi`MWI`Eastern Africa	0.534	0.462	0.359	0.453	0.317
88	Guinea-Bissau`GNB`Western Africa	0.533	0.328	0.243	0.254	0.288
89	Albania`ALB`Southern Europe	0.528	0.442	0.326	0.276	0.396
90	El Salvador`SLV`Central America	0.518	0.316	0.303	0.227	0.245
91	Bosnia and Herzegovina`BIH`Southern Europe	0.517	0.335	0.309	0.326	0.367
92	Nigeria`NGA`Western Africa	0.512	0.349	0.342	0.348	0.279
93	Kenya`KEN`Eastern Africa	0.503	0.404	0.348	0.440	0.321
94	Montenegro`MNE`Southern Europe	0.500	0.395	0.320	0.412	0.424
95	Côte d’Ivoire`CIV`Western Africa	0.499	0.261	0.339	0.421	0.289
96	Gambia`GMB`Western Africa	0.496	0.403	0.313	0.379	0.360
97	Madagascar`MDG`Eastern Africa	0.486	0.246	0.285	0.241	0.213
98	Hungary`HUN`Eastern Europe	0.460	0.351	0.313	0.231	0.325
99	Papua New Guinea`PNG`Melanesia	0.455	0.359	0.274	0.256	0.247
100	Lebanon`LBN`Western Asia	0.436	0.274	0.246	0.303	0.223
101	Myanmar`MMR`South-eastern Asia	0.426	0.252	0.260	0.350	0.240
102	Malaysia`MYS`South-eastern Asia	0.425	0.307	0.271	0.299	0.324
103	Togo`TGO`Western Africa	0.424	0.233	0.259	0.347	0.333
104	Mali`MLI`Western Africa	0.421	0.254	0.259	0.375	0.269
105	Fiji`FJI`Melanesia	0.411	0.276	0.198	0.292	0.304
106	Benin`BEN`Western Africa	0.408	0.284	0.245	0.276	0.329
107	Philippines`PHL`South-eastern Asia	0.405	0.270	0.276	0.338	0.171
108	Singapore`SGP`South-eastern Asia	0.402	0.332	0.107	0.337	0.349
109	Haiti`HTI`Caribbean	0.400	0.237	0.181	0.284	0.127
110	Somaliland`XSL`Eastern Africa	0.399	0.243	0.244	0.252	0.159
111	India`IND`Southern Asia	0.390	0.292	0.252	0.264	0.221
112	Mauritania`MRT`Western Africa	0.389	0.206	0.242	0.273	0.172
113	Kyrgyzstan`KGZ`Central Asia	0.385	0.255	0.227	0.245	0.274
114	Tanzania`TZA`Eastern Africa	0.383	0.330	0.254	0.324	0.326
115	Pakistan`PAK`Southern Asia	0.377	0.253	0.250	0.314	0.134
116	Iraq`IRQ`Western Asia	0.376	0.212	0.246	0.276	0.204
117	Central African Republic`CAF`Middle Africa	0.374	0.201	0.153	0.197	0.175
118	Honduras`HND`Central America	0.372	0.233	0.250	0.256	0.143
119	Gabon`GAB`Middle Africa	0.368	0.196	0.257	0.290	0.290
120	Mozambique`MOZ`Eastern Africa	0.364	0.238	0.223	0.248	0.233
121	Zambia`ZMB`Eastern Africa	0.353	0.292	0.238	0.271	0.206
122	Serbia`SRB`Southern Europe	0.349	0.244	0.232	0.194	0.306
123	DR Congo`COD`Middle Africa	0.347	0.152	0.218	0.292	0.203
=124	Afghanistan`AFG`Southern Asia	0.336	0.167	0.125	0.241	0.179
=124	Angola`AGO`Middle Africa	0.336	0.160	0.093	0.169	0.128
126	Ethiopia`ETH`Eastern Africa	0.320	0.152	0.161	0.283	0.214
127	Kuwait`KWT`Western Asia	0.317	0.282	0.101	0.291	0.246
128	Zimbabwe`ZWE`Eastern Africa	0.299	0.192	0.228	0.223	0.199
129	Guinea`GIN`Western Africa	0.295	0.113	0.207	0.102	0.184
130	Türkiye`TUR`Western Asia	0.292	0.115	0.186	0.088	0.220
=131	Cameroon`CMR`Middle Africa	0.285	0.123	0.109	0.120	0.191
=131	Uganda`UGA`Eastern Africa	0.285	0.192	0.195	0.256	0.153
133	Comoros`COM`Eastern Africa	0.280	0.124	0.197	0.194	0.224
134	Algeria`DZA`Northern Africa	0.279	0.152	0.110	0.192	0.258
135	Bolivia`BOL`South America	0.275	0.209	0.243	0.185	0.199
136	Chad`TCD`Middle Africa	0.268	0.088	0.126	0.134	0.098
137	Libya`LBY`Northern Africa	0.266	0.145	0.163	0.233	0.170
138	Jordan`JOR`Western Asia	0.258	0.240	0.117	0.218	0.219
=139	Morocco`MAR`Northern Africa	0.257	0.238	0.159	0.250	0.191
=139	Republic of the Congo`COG`Middle Africa	0.257	0.118	0.200	0.172	0.141
=141	Bangladesh`BGD`Southern Asia	0.255	0.094	0.107	0.105	0.095
=141	Hong Kong`HKG`Eastern Asia	0.255	0.204	0.087	0.091	0.247
=141	Russia`RUS`Eastern Europe	0.255	0.097	0.177	0.142	0.194
144	Djibouti`DJI`Eastern Africa	0.250	0.119	0.133	0.132	0.176
145	Kazakhstan`KAZ`Central Asia	0.241	0.117	0.079	0.159	0.193
146	Rwanda`RWA`Eastern Africa	0.227	0.120	0.175	0.212	0.205
147	Nicaragua`NIC`Central America	0.215	0.045	0.120	0.027	0.115
148	Vietnam`VNM`South-eastern Asia	0.211	0.106	0.181	0.192	0.204
149	Belarus`BLR`Eastern Europe	0.208	0.045	0.085	0.046	0.244
=150	Uzbekistan`UZB`Central Asia	0.206	0.083	0.063	0.172	0.157
=150	Venezuela`VEN`South America	0.206	0.056	0.153	0.038	0.115
152	Thailand`THA`South-eastern Asia	0.201	0.187	0.108	0.068	0.157
153	Azerbaijan`AZE`Western Asia	0.194	0.064	0.059	0.039	0.123
154	Cambodia`KHM`South-eastern Asia	0.191	0.063	0.077	0.078	0.090
155	Cuba`CUB`Caribbean	0.178	0.060	0.055	0.102	0.247
156	Egypt`EGY`Northern Africa	0.176	0.117	0.072	0.106	0.106
157	Equatorial Guinea`GNQ`Middle Africa	0.175	0.051	0.054	0.045	0.114
158	Oman`OMN`Western Asia	0.174	0.137	0.119	0.061	0.182
159	Tajikistan`TJK`Central Asia	0.170	0.041	0.058	0.045	0.068
160	South Sudan`SSD`Eastern Africa	0.169	0.069	0.090	0.055	0.037
161	Burundi`BDI`Eastern Africa	0.168	0.049	0.080	0.065	0.104
162	Sudan`SDN`Northern Africa	0.167	0.054	0.097	0.139	0.066
163	Iran`IRN`Southern Asia	0.165	0.119	0.041	0.122	0.159
164	Somalia`SOM`Eastern Africa	0.154	0.105	0.088	0.173	0.073
165	Turkmenistan`TKM`Central Asia	0.150	0.033	0.032	0.035	0.082
166	Syria`SYR`Western Asia	0.138	0.031	0.046	0.022	0.058
=167	Bahrain`BHR`Western Asia	0.132	0.062	0.043	0.059	0.120
=167	Eswatini`SWZ`Southern Africa	0.132	0.115	0.113	0.081	0.081
169	Laos`LAO`South-eastern Asia	0.126	0.094	0.109	0.068	0.126
170	Yemen`YEM`Western Asia	0.113	0.033	0.065	0.028	0.021
171	United Arab Emirates`ARE`Western Asia	0.102	0.090	0.037	0.082	0.132
172	North Korea`PRK`Eastern Asia	0.083	0.014	0.043	0.013	0.088
173	China`CHN`Eastern Asia	0.075	0.042	0.037	0.116	0.090
174	Eritrea`ERI`Eastern Africa	0.069	0.010	0.010	0.031	0.101
175	Qatar`QAT`Western Asia	0.038	0.083	0.017	0.090	0.113
176	Saudi Arabia`SAU`Western Asia	0.014	0.045	0.022	0.062	0.106

02In 2020

At either end

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

Highest

1Denmark0.915
2Switzerland0.902
3Sweden0.901
4Belgiumshared0.897
4Estoniashared0.897

Lowest

176Saudi Arabia0.014
175Qatar0.038
174Eritrea0.069
173China0.075
172North Korea0.083

A higher value is the better result. The middle country reads 0.531. “Shared” marks a value another country also holds.

Each measure’s ends

Liberal democracy (0–1)
HighestDenmark0.882
LowestEritrea0.010
Middle country: 0.391
Participatory democracy (0–1)
HighestSwitzerland0.799
LowestEritrea0.010
Middle country: 0.328
Deliberative democracy (0–1)
HighestDenmark0.876
LowestNorth Korea0.013
Middle country: 0.367
Egalitarian democracy (0–1)
HighestDenmark0.876
LowestYemen0.021
Middle country: 0.341

032019 → 2020

Since 2019

What changed between 2019 and this one: who joined or left, and how far the headline moved.

+0 / −0countries joined / left
159values changed, of 176 in both
66 · 93rose · fell
17unchanged

Rose most

Dominican Republic0.569 → 0.656+0.087
Moldova0.588 → 0.651+0.063
Romania0.750 → 0.805+0.055
Malawi0.480 → 0.534+0.054
Seychelles0.621 → 0.666+0.045

Fell most

Bolivia0.456 → 0.275−0.181
Mauritius0.694 → 0.549−0.145
Mali0.516 → 0.421−0.095
Guyana0.640 → 0.555−0.085
El Salvador0.599 → 0.518−0.081

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 2020.
162 distinct values among 176
Values are stored exactly as published, to 3 decimals. 3 countries share 0.598. 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-2020-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 (2020). V-Dem Electoral Democracy Index, 2020 [data set], describing 2020. As held by Nations Inquiry, https://nationsinquiry.com/datasets/vdem-democracy/2020

0636 held

Other years

‹ The year before
V-Dem Electoral Democracy Index, 2019
176 countries
The year after ›
V-Dem Electoral Democracy Index, 2021
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