Data for 2023

V-Dem Electoral Democracy Index, 2023

Name: V-Dem Electoral Democracy Index, 2023
Creator: V-Dem Institute, University of Gothenburg
License: https://v-dem.net/data/the-v-dem-dataset/

2023, as V-Dem Institute’s 2026 release gives it · stored as published, never rewritten

V-Dem Electoral Democracy Index, 2023 covers 176 countries on 5 measures. Denmark is highest, at 0.917; Saudi Arabia is lowest, at 0.014. The middle country reads 0.507. Against 2022, 160 values changed (61 up, 99 down), the same countries are covered.

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V-Dem Electoral Democracy Index · Data for 2023

HighestDenmark

0.917

LowestSaudi Arabia

0.014

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

176countries
5measures per country
2023the year it describes
164distinct 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, 2023, 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, 2023: every country, as published by V-Dem Institute, University of Gothenburg.
derived
1	Denmark`DNK`Northern Europe	0.917	0.884	0.704	0.873	0.880
2	Belgium`BEL`Western Europe	0.895	0.812	0.638	0.809	0.828
3	Ireland`IRL`Northern Europe	0.894	0.829	0.628	0.814	0.784
4	Estonia`EST`Northern Europe	0.893	0.845	0.625	0.766	0.806
5	Norway`NOR`Northern Europe	0.890	0.841	0.637	0.862	0.843
6	Switzerland`CHE`Western Europe	0.884	0.838	0.785	0.850	0.815
7	Sweden`SWE`Northern Europe	0.883	0.849	0.631	0.814	0.803
8	New Zealand`NZL`Australia and New Zealand	0.880	0.824	0.662	0.748	0.761
=9	France`FRA`Western Europe	0.871	0.807	0.605	0.807	0.727
=9	Luxembourg`LUX`Western Europe	0.871	0.789	0.567	0.829	0.807
11	Czechia`CZE`Eastern Europe	0.863	0.796	0.569	0.763	0.779
12	Costa Rica`CRI`Central America	0.862	0.809	0.612	0.787	0.759
13	United States`USA`Northern America	0.857	0.789	0.614	0.752	0.610
14	Germany`DEU`Western Europe	0.855	0.812	0.616	0.814	0.794
15	Portugal`PRT`Southern Europe	0.854	0.757	0.575	0.747	0.698
16	Finland`FIN`Northern Europe	0.853	0.812	0.595	0.772	0.767
17	United Kingdom`GBR`Northern Europe	0.852	0.771	0.608	0.730	0.699
18	Australia`AUS`Australia and New Zealand	0.851	0.802	0.636	0.774	0.728
19	Austria`AUT`Western Europe	0.848	0.775	0.599	0.721	0.749
=20	Canada`CAN`Northern America	0.847	0.742	0.588	0.659	0.635
=20	Netherlands`NLD`Western Europe	0.847	0.791	0.581	0.792	0.751
=22	Latvia`LVA`Northern Europe	0.846	0.762	0.615	0.710	0.731
=22	Spain`ESP`Southern Europe	0.846	0.759	0.593	0.702	0.714
24	Iceland`ISL`Northern Europe	0.841	0.751	0.602	0.757	0.755
25	Argentina`ARG`South America	0.838	0.695	0.569	0.626	0.661
26	Chile`CHL`South America	0.836	0.779	0.594	0.771	0.613
27	Uruguay`URY`South America	0.833	0.756	0.661	0.709	0.697
28	Japan`JPN`Eastern Asia	0.826	0.745	0.532	0.730	0.755
29	Taiwan`TWN`Eastern Asia	0.823	0.725	0.642	0.744	0.738
30	Vanuatu`VUT`Melanesia	0.820	0.704	0.503	0.639	0.655
31	Slovakia`SVK`Eastern Europe	0.812	0.724	0.592	0.527	0.653
32	Italy`ITA`Southern Europe	0.806	0.727	0.627	0.725	0.722
33	Barbados`BRB`Caribbean	0.802	0.684	0.350	0.710	0.681
34	Jamaica`JAM`Caribbean	0.798	0.677	0.520	0.649	0.664
35	Brazil`BRA`South America	0.790	0.695	0.549	0.726	0.557
36	Lithuania`LTU`Northern Europe	0.785	0.724	0.574	0.651	0.683
37	Malta`MLT`Southern Europe	0.783	0.623	0.547	0.638	0.693
38	Trinidad and Tobago`TTO`Caribbean	0.778	0.661	0.499	0.679	0.648
39	Cyprus`CYP`Western Asia	0.777	0.643	0.498	0.652	0.674
40	Suriname`SUR`South America	0.764	0.633	0.494	0.603	0.563
41	Slovenia`SVN`Southern Europe	0.760	0.659	0.559	0.654	0.665
42	Cabo Verde`CPV`Western Africa	0.750	0.646	0.457	0.547	0.570
43	Greece`GRC`Southern Europe	0.735	0.573	0.508	0.632	0.624
44	Seychelles`SYC`Eastern Africa	0.728	0.641	0.317	0.667	0.605
45	Croatia`HRV`Southern Europe	0.725	0.628	0.490	0.513	0.562
=46	Panama`PAN`Central America	0.722	0.557	0.418	0.556	0.451
=46	South Korea`KOR`Eastern Asia	0.722	0.620	0.478	0.609	0.618
48	Timor-Leste`TLS`South-eastern Asia	0.714	0.526	0.450	0.536	0.457
=49	Moldova`MDA`Eastern Europe	0.712	0.602	0.506	0.638	0.565
=49	South Africa`ZAF`Southern Africa	0.712	0.602	0.449	0.612	0.491
51	Colombia`COL`South America	0.711	0.570	0.494	0.515	0.439
52	Israel`ISR`Western Asia	0.704	0.616	0.462	0.552	0.558
53	Peru`PER`South America	0.700	0.572	0.477	0.414	0.414
54	Dominican Republic`DOM`Caribbean	0.692	0.471	0.450	0.618	0.382
55	Nepal`NPL`Southern Asia	0.685	0.528	0.455	0.426	0.442
56	Romania`ROU`Eastern Europe	0.677	0.503	0.473	0.307	0.482
57	Kosovo`XKX`Southern Europe	0.676	0.494	0.404	0.442	0.483
58	Lesotho`LSO`Southern Africa	0.667	0.521	0.412	0.512	0.508
59	Solomon Islands`SLB`Melanesia	0.666	0.517	0.411	0.378	0.423
60	Bulgaria`BGR`Eastern Europe	0.659	0.580	0.465	0.572	0.512
61	Ghana`GHA`Western Africa	0.657	0.555	0.319	0.555	0.472
62	São Tomé and Príncipe`STP`Middle Africa	0.644	0.540	0.403	0.421	0.451
63	Ecuador`ECU`South America	0.641	0.463	0.491	0.395	0.347
64	Gambia`GMB`Western Africa	0.635	0.516	0.406	0.483	0.453
65	Armenia`ARM`Western Asia	0.631	0.421	0.334	0.454	0.509
66	Senegal`SEN`Western Africa	0.625	0.474	0.401	0.534	0.457
67	Liberia`LBR`Western Africa	0.624	0.421	0.338	0.515	0.407
68	Namibia`NAM`Southern Africa	0.622	0.503	0.350	0.463	0.314
69	Montenegro`MNE`Southern Europe	0.610	0.491	0.382	0.485	0.492
70	Poland`POL`Eastern Europe	0.598	0.457	0.373	0.442	0.520
71	Maldives`MDV`Southern Asia	0.596	0.453	0.335	0.472	0.396
72	Georgia`GEO`Western Asia	0.591	0.456	0.358	0.479	0.477
73	Bolivia`BOL`South America	0.586	0.344	0.401	0.353	0.386
74	Sri Lanka`LKA`Southern Asia	0.585	0.426	0.361	0.381	0.401
75	Paraguay`PRY`South America	0.576	0.420	0.347	0.324	0.240
76	Malawi`MWI`Eastern Africa	0.571	0.479	0.369	0.446	0.320
77	Kenya`KEN`Eastern Africa	0.570	0.463	0.375	0.481	0.370
78	Botswana`BWA`Southern Africa	0.564	0.444	0.317	0.372	0.408
79	North Macedonia`MKD`Southern Europe	0.562	0.363	0.374	0.385	0.373
80	Mexico`MEX`Central America	0.548	0.302	0.388	0.332	0.295
81	Honduras`HND`Central America	0.539	0.398	0.333	0.385	0.269
82	Indonesia`IDN`South-eastern Asia	0.538	0.348	0.352	0.455	0.287
83	Mongolia`MNG`Eastern Asia	0.534	0.412	0.265	0.411	0.357
84	Bhutan`BTN`Southern Asia	0.532	0.447	0.338	0.488	0.458
85	Zambia`ZMB`Eastern Africa	0.525	0.427	0.366	0.442	0.339
86	Sierra Leone`SLE`Western Africa	0.512	0.391	0.332	0.466	0.353
87	Fiji`FJI`Melanesia	0.509	0.411	0.265	0.411	0.351
88	Malaysia`MYS`South-eastern Asia	0.508	0.362	0.306	0.365	0.384
89	Guatemala`GTM`Central America	0.506	0.338	0.284	0.285	0.228
90	Albania`ALB`Southern Europe	0.505	0.394	0.313	0.261	0.377
91	Bosnia and Herzegovina`BIH`Southern Europe	0.502	0.336	0.299	0.347	0.355
92	Benin`BEN`Western Africa	0.487	0.313	0.277	0.290	0.382
=93	Guyana`GUY`South America	0.484	0.313	0.281	0.236	0.362
=93	Nigeria`NGA`Western Africa	0.484	0.316	0.325	0.331	0.280
95	Mauritius`MUS`Eastern Africa	0.470	0.353	0.302	0.395	0.367
96	Papua New Guinea`PNG`Melanesia	0.466	0.372	0.280	0.248	0.266
97	Madagascar`MDG`Eastern Africa	0.461	0.225	0.266	0.221	0.201
98	Côte d’Ivoire`CIV`Western Africa	0.445	0.240	0.299	0.386	0.276
99	Hungary`HUN`Eastern Europe	0.434	0.323	0.283	0.205	0.308
100	Tunisia`TUN`Northern Africa	0.432	0.283	0.267	0.355	0.349
101	Guinea-Bissau`GNB`Western Africa	0.428	0.231	0.199	0.217	0.247
102	Philippines`PHL`South-eastern Asia	0.416	0.288	0.282	0.262	0.179
103	Tanzania`TZA`Eastern Africa	0.409	0.355	0.259	0.320	0.318
104	Singapore`SGP`South-eastern Asia	0.405	0.334	0.111	0.333	0.353
105	Somaliland`XSL`Eastern Africa	0.402	0.251	0.244	0.260	0.161
106	Ukraine`UKR`Eastern Europe	0.390	0.239	0.258	0.312	0.297
107	Togo`TGO`Western Africa	0.389	0.194	0.229	0.326	0.277
108	Niger`NER`Western Africa	0.388	0.285	0.278	0.352	0.286
109	El Salvador`SLV`Central America	0.377	0.106	0.221	0.145	0.165
110	India`IND`Southern Asia	0.374	0.273	0.236	0.269	0.205
111	Iraq`IRQ`Western Asia	0.371	0.208	0.233	0.262	0.211
112	Mauritania`MRT`Western Africa	0.368	0.183	0.233	0.246	0.163
113	Lebanon`LBN`Western Asia	0.361	0.234	0.218	0.270	0.224
114	Serbia`SRB`Southern Europe	0.360	0.248	0.242	0.222	0.310
115	Mozambique`MOZ`Eastern Africa	0.351	0.224	0.229	0.233	0.224
116	Kyrgyzstan`KGZ`Central Asia	0.348	0.197	0.182	0.176	0.250
117	Pakistan`PAK`Southern Asia	0.334	0.205	0.226	0.206	0.117
118	DR Congo`COD`Middle Africa	0.333	0.123	0.208	0.232	0.156
119	Angola`AGO`Middle Africa	0.329	0.154	0.100	0.157	0.128
120	Gabon`GAB`Middle Africa	0.325	0.185	0.226	0.218	0.252
121	Kuwait`KWT`Western Asia	0.314	0.294	0.102	0.255	0.232
122	Central African Republic`CAF`Middle Africa	0.301	0.102	0.135	0.147	0.127
123	Zimbabwe`ZWE`Eastern Africa	0.296	0.175	0.207	0.234	0.149
124	Thailand`THA`South-eastern Asia	0.295	0.246	0.145	0.162	0.191
125	Türkiye`TUR`Western Asia	0.285	0.108	0.166	0.085	0.193
=126	Cameroon`CMR`Middle Africa	0.279	0.122	0.111	0.111	0.190
=126	Ethiopia`ETH`Eastern Africa	0.279	0.106	0.152	0.233	0.187
128	Kazakhstan`KAZ`Central Asia	0.269	0.139	0.124	0.183	0.204
129	Algeria`DZA`Northern Africa	0.265	0.123	0.098	0.167	0.254
130	Comoros`COM`Eastern Africa	0.264	0.118	0.190	0.136	0.217
131	Morocco`MAR`Northern Africa	0.262	0.252	0.154	0.252	0.203
132	Uganda`UGA`Eastern Africa	0.259	0.179	0.151	0.242	0.153
=133	Bangladesh`BGD`Southern Asia	0.253	0.094	0.108	0.125	0.103
=133	Republic of the Congo`COG`Middle Africa	0.253	0.121	0.198	0.160	0.139
135	Jordan`JOR`Western Asia	0.252	0.250	0.121	0.258	0.199
136	Djibouti`DJI`Eastern Africa	0.250	0.118	0.144	0.144	0.188
137	Haiti`HTI`Caribbean	0.231	0.084	0.117	0.192	0.072
138	Mali`MLI`Western Africa	0.229	0.145	0.193	0.225	0.204
139	Uzbekistan`UZB`Central Asia	0.215	0.079	0.080	0.155	0.156
=140	Burkina Faso`BFA`Western Africa	0.212	0.179	0.145	0.224	0.201
=140	Rwanda`RWA`Eastern Africa	0.212	0.099	0.138	0.189	0.172
142	Venezuela`VEN`South America	0.206	0.053	0.155	0.042	0.100
143	Libya`LBY`Northern Africa	0.196	0.105	0.152	0.224	0.130
144	Russia`RUS`Eastern Europe	0.190	0.065	0.124	0.079	0.140
145	Cambodia`KHM`South-eastern Asia	0.189	0.052	0.064	0.080	0.084
146	Egypt`EGY`Northern Africa	0.187	0.123	0.080	0.099	0.109
147	Burundi`BDI`Eastern Africa	0.186	0.056	0.065	0.057	0.104
148	Azerbaijan`AZE`Western Asia	0.185	0.062	0.051	0.050	0.118
149	Equatorial Guinea`GNQ`Middle Africa	0.183	0.054	0.051	0.047	0.113
150	Cuba`CUB`Caribbean	0.175	0.055	0.054	0.103	0.234
151	Oman`OMN`Western Asia	0.172	0.139	0.123	0.073	0.175
152	Guinea`GIN`Western Africa	0.169	0.079	0.107	0.078	0.141
=153	Somalia`SOM`Eastern Africa	0.167	0.131	0.090	0.219	0.101
=153	South Sudan`SSD`Eastern Africa	0.167	0.070	0.082	0.041	0.044
155	Tajikistan`TJK`Central Asia	0.164	0.036	0.054	0.045	0.065
156	Nicaragua`NIC`Central America	0.158	0.021	0.102	0.019	0.098
157	Belarus`BLR`Eastern Europe	0.157	0.035	0.056	0.025	0.221
158	Iran`IRN`Southern Asia	0.153	0.077	0.035	0.086	0.154
159	Hong Kong`HKG`Eastern Asia	0.149	0.139	0.048	0.055	0.210
=160	Chad`TCD`Middle Africa	0.148	0.051	0.106	0.101	0.068
=160	Turkmenistan`TKM`Central Asia	0.148	0.034	0.030	0.023	0.086
=160	Vietnam`VNM`South-eastern Asia	0.148	0.111	0.164	0.179	0.181
163	Syria`SYR`Western Asia	0.145	0.044	0.046	0.032	0.059
164	Sudan`SDN`Northern Africa	0.139	0.039	0.073	0.043	0.057
165	Bahrain`BHR`Western Asia	0.138	0.064	0.054	0.060	0.122
166	Laos`LAO`South-eastern Asia	0.132	0.106	0.114	0.062	0.129
167	Yemen`YEM`Western Asia	0.128	0.045	0.070	0.053	0.039
168	Eswatini`SWZ`Southern Africa	0.121	0.099	0.110	0.063	0.067
169	United Arab Emirates`ARE`Western Asia	0.102	0.077	0.030	0.082	0.127
170	Qatar`QAT`Western Asia	0.087	0.083	0.017	0.104	0.106
171	North Korea`PRK`Eastern Asia	0.083	0.014	0.044	0.013	0.091
172	Myanmar`MMR`South-eastern Asia	0.077	0.015	0.046	0.037	0.056
173	China`CHN`Eastern Asia	0.074	0.037	0.033	0.101	0.082
174	Afghanistan`AFG`Southern Asia	0.073	0.015	0.010	0.024	0.021
175	Eritrea`ERI`Eastern Africa	0.068	0.010	0.011	0.034	0.114
176	Saudi Arabia`SAU`Western Asia	0.014	0.045	0.024	0.062	0.114

02In 2023

At either end

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

Highest

1Denmark0.917
2Belgium0.895
3Ireland0.894
4Estonia0.893
5Norway0.890

Lowest

176Saudi Arabia0.014
175Eritrea0.068
174Afghanistan0.073
173China0.074
172Myanmar0.077

A higher value is the better result. The middle country reads 0.507. “Shared” marks a value another country also holds.

Each measure’s ends

Liberal democracy (0–1)
HighestDenmark0.884
LowestEritrea0.010
Middle country: 0.354
Participatory democracy (0–1)
HighestSwitzerland0.785
LowestAfghanistan0.010
Middle country: 0.304
Deliberative democracy (0–1)
HighestDenmark0.873
LowestNorth Korea0.013
Middle country: 0.353
Egalitarian democracy (0–1)
HighestDenmark0.880
LowestAfghanistan0.021
Middle country: 0.343

032022 → 2023

Since 2022

What changed between 2022 and this one: who joined or left, and how far the headline moved.

+0 / −0countries joined / left
160values changed, of 176 in both
61 · 99rose · fell
16unchanged

Rose most

Tunisia0.283 → 0.432+0.149
Fiji0.398 → 0.509+0.111
Brazil0.699 → 0.790+0.091
Thailand0.216 → 0.295+0.079
Montenegro0.532 → 0.610+0.078

Fell most

Niger0.504 → 0.388−0.116
South Korea0.802 → 0.722−0.080
Burkina Faso0.275 → 0.212−0.063
Senegal0.686 → 0.625−0.061
Sierra Leone0.570 → 0.512−0.058

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 2023.
164 distinct values among 176
Values are stored exactly as published, to 3 decimals. 3 countries share 0.148. 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-2023-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 (2023). V-Dem Electoral Democracy Index, 2023 [data set], describing 2023. As held by Nations Inquiry, https://nationsinquiry.com/datasets/vdem-democracy/2023

0636 held

Other years

‹ The year before
V-Dem Electoral Democracy Index, 2022
176 countries
The year after ›
V-Dem Electoral Democracy Index, 2024
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