Data for 2021

V-Dem Electoral Democracy Index, 2021

Name: V-Dem Electoral Democracy Index, 2021
Creator: V-Dem Institute, University of Gothenburg
License: https://v-dem.net/data/the-v-dem-dataset/

2021, as V-Dem Institute’s 2026 release gives it · stored as published, never rewritten

V-Dem Electoral Democracy Index, 2021 covers 176 countries on 5 measures. Denmark is highest, at 0.915; Saudi Arabia is lowest, at 0.015. The middle country reads 0.529. Against 2020, 161 values changed (58 up, 103 down), the same countries are covered.

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V-Dem Electoral Democracy Index · Data for 2021

HighestDenmark

0.915

LowestSaudi Arabia

0.015

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

176countries
5measures per country
2021the year it describes
165distinct 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, 2021, 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, 2021: every country, as published by V-Dem Institute, University of Gothenburg.
derived
1	Denmark`DNK`Northern Europe	0.915	0.882	0.694	0.873	0.877
=2	Estonia`EST`Northern Europe	0.900	0.853	0.639	0.802	0.816
=2	Sweden`SWE`Northern Europe	0.900	0.866	0.646	0.850	0.823
4	Ireland`IRL`Northern Europe	0.898	0.833	0.634	0.818	0.788
5	Belgium`BEL`Western Europe	0.897	0.827	0.640	0.819	0.828
6	Switzerland`CHE`Western Europe	0.896	0.851	0.798	0.862	0.831
7	Costa Rica`CRI`Central America	0.894	0.843	0.649	0.838	0.794
8	Norway`NOR`Northern Europe	0.892	0.843	0.638	0.862	0.846
9	Portugal`PRT`Southern Europe	0.884	0.810	0.621	0.796	0.771
10	New Zealand`NZL`Australia and New Zealand	0.874	0.813	0.672	0.740	0.765
11	Luxembourg`LUX`Western Europe	0.872	0.785	0.614	0.827	0.811
12	Finland`FIN`Northern Europe	0.871	0.835	0.617	0.813	0.784
13	France`FRA`Western Europe	0.868	0.789	0.610	0.814	0.759
14	Netherlands`NLD`Western Europe	0.864	0.812	0.587	0.819	0.782
15	Germany`DEU`Western Europe	0.863	0.814	0.622	0.824	0.802
=16	Italy`ITA`Southern Europe	0.857	0.774	0.675	0.781	0.776
=16	United Kingdom`GBR`Northern Europe	0.857	0.781	0.628	0.765	0.706
18	Austria`AUT`Western Europe	0.854	0.784	0.617	0.734	0.754
=19	South Korea`KOR`Eastern Asia	0.852	0.775	0.585	0.785	0.742
=19	Uruguay`URY`South America	0.852	0.789	0.675	0.735	0.724
21	Spain`ESP`Southern Europe	0.850	0.775	0.601	0.739	0.751
22	Canada`CAN`Northern America	0.843	0.749	0.586	0.675	0.711
23	Chile`CHL`South America	0.841	0.777	0.592	0.774	0.616
24	Slovakia`SVK`Eastern Europe	0.839	0.757	0.607	0.673	0.672
25	Iceland`ISL`Northern Europe	0.836	0.745	0.612	0.754	0.757
26	Latvia`LVA`Northern Europe	0.831	0.740	0.606	0.678	0.714
27	Australia`AUS`Australia and New Zealand	0.828	0.779	0.595	0.747	0.702
28	Japan`JPN`Eastern Asia	0.824	0.736	0.532	0.736	0.751
29	United States`USA`Northern America	0.821	0.756	0.583	0.722	0.600
30	Taiwan`TWN`Eastern Asia	0.820	0.711	0.630	0.740	0.737
31	Barbados`BRB`Caribbean	0.807	0.686	0.355	0.709	0.679
32	Jamaica`JAM`Caribbean	0.801	0.691	0.526	0.646	0.655
33	Vanuatu`VUT`Melanesia	0.800	0.673	0.489	0.641	0.610
34	Argentina`ARG`South America	0.796	0.639	0.534	0.636	0.621
35	Cyprus`CYP`Western Asia	0.795	0.653	0.522	0.652	0.693
36	Lithuania`LTU`Northern Europe	0.793	0.732	0.592	0.651	0.689
37	Trinidad and Tobago`TTO`Caribbean	0.791	0.672	0.506	0.692	0.657
38	Czechia`CZE`Eastern Europe	0.789	0.698	0.522	0.616	0.704
39	Cabo Verde`CPV`Western Africa	0.775	0.676	0.474	0.581	0.601
40	Peru`PER`South America	0.771	0.660	0.553	0.572	0.481
41	Malta`MLT`Southern Europe	0.770	0.605	0.547	0.627	0.679
42	Romania`ROU`Eastern Europe	0.766	0.611	0.580	0.536	0.541
43	Suriname`SUR`South America	0.761	0.639	0.494	0.604	0.563
44	Greece`GRC`Southern Europe	0.760	0.630	0.528	0.656	0.644
45	Moldova`MDA`Eastern Europe	0.752	0.618	0.530	0.639	0.592
46	Croatia`HRV`Southern Europe	0.747	0.641	0.507	0.543	0.592
47	Panama`PAN`Central America	0.735	0.544	0.435	0.575	0.460
48	South Africa`ZAF`Southern Africa	0.725	0.609	0.464	0.646	0.516
49	Armenia`ARM`Western Asia	0.724	0.532	0.456	0.592	0.603
50	Israel`ISR`Western Asia	0.722	0.639	0.473	0.590	0.579
51	Slovenia`SVN`Southern Europe	0.715	0.624	0.502	0.533	0.590
52	Senegal`SEN`Western Africa	0.714	0.558	0.452	0.598	0.537
53	Seychelles`SYC`Eastern Africa	0.711	0.634	0.306	0.641	0.573
54	Dominican Republic`DOM`Caribbean	0.694	0.484	0.469	0.625	0.395
55	Timor-Leste`TLS`South-eastern Asia	0.693	0.501	0.415	0.486	0.435
56	Brazil`BRA`South America	0.690	0.531	0.437	0.512	0.394
57	Kosovo`XKX`Southern Europe	0.674	0.494	0.407	0.480	0.484
58	Bulgaria`BGR`Eastern Europe	0.665	0.549	0.478	0.548	0.506
59	Ghana`GHA`Western Africa	0.659	0.554	0.322	0.532	0.467
60	Solomon Islands`SLB`Melanesia	0.658	0.501	0.405	0.365	0.392
61	São Tomé and Príncipe`STP`Middle Africa	0.657	0.554	0.411	0.433	0.463
62	Colombia`COL`South America	0.654	0.499	0.454	0.417	0.364
63	Burkina Faso`BFA`Western Africa	0.634	0.456	0.352	0.517	0.400
64	Ecuador`ECU`South America	0.625	0.454	0.425	0.471	0.376
65	Mexico`MEX`Central America	0.624	0.371	0.399	0.386	0.331
66	Namibia`NAM`Southern Africa	0.622	0.506	0.376	0.457	0.329
=67	Lesotho`LSO`Southern Africa	0.616	0.498	0.384	0.467	0.488
=67	Liberia`LBR`Western Africa	0.616	0.408	0.334	0.492	0.408
=69	Mongolia`MNG`Eastern Asia	0.609	0.495	0.315	0.446	0.428
=69	Nepal`NPL`Southern Asia	0.609	0.491	0.394	0.356	0.391
71	Bolivia`BOL`South America	0.608	0.362	0.429	0.412	0.399
72	Georgia`GEO`Western Asia	0.604	0.454	0.373	0.496	0.489
73	Malawi`MWI`Eastern Africa	0.603	0.522	0.398	0.493	0.360
74	North Macedonia`MKD`Southern Europe	0.592	0.389	0.399	0.431	0.397
=75	Botswana`BWA`Southern Africa	0.587	0.477	0.393	0.444	0.421
=75	Poland`POL`Eastern Europe	0.587	0.424	0.368	0.373	0.506
77	Maldives`MDV`Southern Asia	0.582	0.424	0.328	0.444	0.407
78	Paraguay`PRY`South America	0.578	0.427	0.353	0.351	0.248
79	Bhutan`BTN`Southern Asia	0.574	0.482	0.367	0.515	0.485
80	Sri Lanka`LKA`Southern Asia	0.572	0.393	0.344	0.324	0.376
81	Sierra Leone`SLE`Western Africa	0.562	0.436	0.375	0.512	0.399
82	Guatemala`GTM`Central America	0.555	0.359	0.331	0.315	0.238
83	Indonesia`IDN`South-eastern Asia	0.545	0.398	0.358	0.471	0.303
84	Ukraine`UKR`Eastern Europe	0.537	0.323	0.335	0.444	0.384
=85	Guinea-Bissau`GNB`Western Africa	0.535	0.321	0.243	0.254	0.310
=85	Tunisia`TUN`Northern Africa	0.535	0.464	0.356	0.466	0.454
87	Montenegro`MNE`Southern Europe	0.534	0.432	0.320	0.451	0.443
88	Mauritius`MUS`Eastern Africa	0.532	0.423	0.335	0.441	0.413
89	Albania`ALB`Southern Europe	0.526	0.438	0.324	0.338	0.395
90	Niger`NER`Western Africa	0.523	0.401	0.341	0.489	0.354
91	Bosnia and Herzegovina`BIH`Southern Europe	0.508	0.328	0.303	0.323	0.367
=92	Gambia`GMB`Western Africa	0.507	0.417	0.324	0.390	0.360
=92	Kenya`KEN`Eastern Africa	0.507	0.423	0.341	0.435	0.330
94	Guyana`GUY`South America	0.498	0.335	0.292	0.243	0.366
95	Nigeria`NGA`Western Africa	0.488	0.331	0.327	0.313	0.274
96	Madagascar`MDG`Eastern Africa	0.479	0.237	0.282	0.236	0.207
97	Papua New Guinea`PNG`Melanesia	0.455	0.355	0.274	0.245	0.250
98	Hungary`HUN`Eastern Europe	0.450	0.346	0.301	0.212	0.322
99	Côte d’Ivoire`CIV`Western Africa	0.435	0.233	0.303	0.379	0.258
100	Lebanon`LBN`Western Asia	0.433	0.262	0.240	0.315	0.260
101	Malaysia`MYS`South-eastern Asia	0.432	0.300	0.272	0.307	0.326
102	Zambia`ZMB`Eastern Africa	0.421	0.339	0.292	0.227	0.274
103	Philippines`PHL`South-eastern Asia	0.411	0.271	0.280	0.342	0.175
104	Kyrgyzstan`KGZ`Central Asia	0.410	0.256	0.232	0.256	0.278
105	Somaliland`XSL`Eastern Africa	0.406	0.250	0.247	0.259	0.163
106	El Salvador`SLV`Central America	0.403	0.156	0.233	0.152	0.191
107	Fiji`FJI`Melanesia	0.400	0.269	0.201	0.299	0.279
108	India`IND`Southern Asia	0.398	0.307	0.255	0.280	0.234
109	Togo`TGO`Western Africa	0.396	0.214	0.249	0.332	0.294
110	Singapore`SGP`South-eastern Asia	0.395	0.329	0.112	0.338	0.347
=111	Honduras`HND`Central America	0.394	0.248	0.265	0.273	0.152
=111	Pakistan`PAK`Southern Asia	0.394	0.248	0.252	0.278	0.153
113	Mauritania`MRT`Western Africa	0.391	0.195	0.246	0.269	0.162
114	Benin`BEN`Western Africa	0.390	0.271	0.237	0.265	0.321
115	Iraq`IRQ`Western Asia	0.374	0.218	0.233	0.287	0.201
116	Gabon`GAB`Middle Africa	0.368	0.199	0.252	0.290	0.285
117	Mozambique`MOZ`Eastern Africa	0.367	0.244	0.246	0.252	0.232
118	Tanzania`TZA`Eastern Africa	0.366	0.324	0.253	0.305	0.323
119	Central African Republic`CAF`Middle Africa	0.343	0.176	0.143	0.168	0.165
120	DR Congo`COD`Middle Africa	0.342	0.140	0.204	0.266	0.182
121	Serbia`SRB`Southern Europe	0.336	0.236	0.226	0.181	0.296
122	Haiti`HTI`Caribbean	0.330	0.204	0.204	0.240	0.105
123	Angola`AGO`Middle Africa	0.325	0.151	0.081	0.149	0.121
124	Kuwait`KWT`Western Asia	0.301	0.274	0.087	0.253	0.233
125	Zimbabwe`ZWE`Eastern Africa	0.297	0.194	0.227	0.231	0.193
126	Ethiopia`ETH`Eastern Africa	0.290	0.136	0.159	0.250	0.199
127	Türkiye`TUR`Western Asia	0.287	0.113	0.175	0.084	0.216
=128	Algeria`DZA`Northern Africa	0.282	0.139	0.105	0.186	0.262
=128	Cameroon`CMR`Middle Africa	0.282	0.121	0.109	0.101	0.187
130	Comoros`COM`Eastern Africa	0.280	0.124	0.198	0.166	0.224
131	Uganda`UGA`Eastern Africa	0.274	0.180	0.171	0.253	0.153
132	Morocco`MAR`Northern Africa	0.261	0.240	0.156	0.251	0.203
133	Guinea`GIN`Western Africa	0.258	0.098	0.181	0.093	0.166
134	Jordan`JOR`Western Asia	0.257	0.249	0.117	0.210	0.197
135	Bangladesh`BGD`Southern Asia	0.255	0.092	0.104	0.110	0.095
136	Republic of the Congo`COG`Middle Africa	0.254	0.116	0.198	0.171	0.140
137	Kazakhstan`KAZ`Central Asia	0.253	0.121	0.091	0.155	0.192
138	Djibouti`DJI`Eastern Africa	0.251	0.120	0.134	0.144	0.188
139	Russia`RUS`Eastern Europe	0.245	0.094	0.153	0.136	0.188
140	Mali`MLI`Western Africa	0.243	0.155	0.173	0.252	0.176
141	Rwanda`RWA`Eastern Africa	0.226	0.110	0.167	0.212	0.199
142	Libya`LBY`Northern Africa	0.216	0.129	0.156	0.215	0.137
143	Venezuela`VEN`South America	0.215	0.056	0.156	0.044	0.115
144	Thailand`THA`South-eastern Asia	0.208	0.187	0.112	0.069	0.160
145	Hong Kong`HKG`Eastern Asia	0.205	0.168	0.063	0.060	0.230
146	Uzbekistan`UZB`Central Asia	0.204	0.078	0.061	0.152	0.150
147	Nicaragua`NIC`Central America	0.195	0.034	0.115	0.028	0.101
148	Azerbaijan`AZE`Western Asia	0.193	0.066	0.057	0.048	0.122
149	Cambodia`KHM`South-eastern Asia	0.190	0.059	0.070	0.078	0.086
150	Burundi`BDI`Eastern Africa	0.181	0.067	0.072	0.089	0.113
151	Egypt`EGY`Northern Africa	0.180	0.116	0.072	0.108	0.101
152	Cuba`CUB`Caribbean	0.178	0.056	0.055	0.102	0.247
153	Chad`TCD`Middle Africa	0.177	0.054	0.113	0.109	0.074
154	Oman`OMN`Western Asia	0.174	0.140	0.125	0.065	0.183
=155	Belarus`BLR`Eastern Europe	0.172	0.035	0.060	0.037	0.221
=155	Equatorial Guinea`GNQ`Middle Africa	0.172	0.051	0.051	0.045	0.111
157	Tajikistan`TJK`Central Asia	0.171	0.039	0.054	0.048	0.069
158	Vietnam`VNM`South-eastern Asia	0.169	0.109	0.169	0.189	0.177
159	Sudan`SDN`Northern Africa	0.163	0.051	0.089	0.058	0.079
160	Somalia`SOM`Eastern Africa	0.161	0.111	0.091	0.172	0.092
161	Iran`IRN`Southern Asia	0.158	0.091	0.038	0.121	0.150
162	Turkmenistan`TKM`Central Asia	0.150	0.033	0.032	0.030	0.081
163	Afghanistan`AFG`Southern Asia	0.144	0.041	0.031	0.037	0.055
164	South Sudan`SSD`Eastern Africa	0.137	0.058	0.051	0.117	0.028
165	Syria`SYR`Western Asia	0.136	0.033	0.044	0.020	0.058
166	Laos`LAO`South-eastern Asia	0.135	0.104	0.120	0.063	0.117
167	Bahrain`BHR`Western Asia	0.134	0.063	0.043	0.060	0.122
168	Eswatini`SWZ`Southern Africa	0.120	0.095	0.107	0.051	0.075
169	Yemen`YEM`Western Asia	0.116	0.033	0.067	0.025	0.021
170	Myanmar`MMR`South-eastern Asia	0.102	0.020	0.078	0.043	0.063
171	United Arab Emirates`ARE`Western Asia	0.100	0.084	0.030	0.082	0.128
172	Qatar`QAT`Western Asia	0.089	0.081	0.020	0.104	0.106
173	North Korea`PRK`Eastern Asia	0.083	0.014	0.044	0.012	0.088
174	China`CHN`Eastern Asia	0.077	0.044	0.037	0.116	0.091
175	Eritrea`ERI`Eastern Africa	0.071	0.010	0.010	0.035	0.105
176	Saudi Arabia`SAU`Western Asia	0.015	0.045	0.023	0.056	0.108

02In 2021

At either end

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

Highest

1Denmark0.915
2Estoniashared0.900
2Swedenshared0.900
4Ireland0.898
5Belgium0.897

Lowest

176Saudi Arabia0.015
175Eritrea0.071
174China0.077
173North Korea0.083
172Qatar0.089

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)
HighestDenmark0.882
LowestEritrea0.010
Middle country: 0.367
Participatory democracy (0–1)
HighestSwitzerland0.798
LowestEritrea0.010
Middle country: 0.323
Deliberative democracy (0–1)
HighestDenmark0.873
LowestNorth Korea0.012
Middle country: 0.354
Egalitarian democracy (0–1)
HighestDenmark0.877
LowestYemen0.021
Middle country: 0.339

032020 → 2021

Since 2020

What changed between 2020 and this one: who joined or left, and how far the headline moved.

+0 / −0countries joined / left
161values changed, of 176 in both
58 · 103rose · fell
15unchanged

Rose most

Bolivia0.275 → 0.608+0.333
Moldova0.651 → 0.752+0.101
Malawi0.534 → 0.603+0.069
Zambia0.353 → 0.421+0.068
Bulgaria0.607 → 0.665+0.058

Fell most

Myanmar0.426 → 0.102−0.324
Afghanistan0.336 → 0.144−0.192
Mali0.421 → 0.243−0.178
Tunisia0.712 → 0.535−0.177
El Salvador0.518 → 0.403−0.115

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 2021.
165 distinct values among 176
Values are stored exactly as published, to 3 decimals. 2 countries share 0.900. 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
For a spreadsheet or code
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-2021-nations-inquiry.csv
↗
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 (2021). V-Dem Electoral Democracy Index, 2021 [data set], describing 2021. As held by Nations Inquiry, https://nationsinquiry.com/datasets/vdem-democracy/2021

0636 held

Other years

‹ The year before
V-Dem Electoral Democracy Index, 2020
176 countries
The year after ›
V-Dem Electoral Democracy Index, 2022
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