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V-Dem Institute, University of Gothenburg · V-Dem Electoral Democracy Index
Electoral democracy by country
How far are rulers made answerable to citizens through elections?
Denmark placed first of the 176 countries compared in 2025, at 0.913, and Saudi Arabia last, at 0.016. In the middle country the figure was 0.498. Among the 167 countries measured in every edition since 1990, the middle one moved from 0.313 to 0.493.
Electoral democracy · 2025
Key statistic · Democracy & Civil Liberties
Highest of 176Denmark
0.913012025 · position · derived
Who leads
The three countries at the highest end of 176 compared, the three at the other end, and the first on each continent.
1Photo: User:Aconcagua · CC BY-SA 3.0, greyscale
2Photo: Ximonic , Simo Räsänen · CC BY-SA 3.0, greyscale
3Photo: Gf uip · CC BY-SA 3.0, greyscale
Lowest in 2025
- 176
Saudi Arabia0.016 - 175
Qatar0.034 - =173
Eritrea0.069
Positions out of 176. Where a country sits says how it compares with the others measured, and nothing about why.
Highest on each continent
- Africa
Seychelles0.760 - Americas
2 countries share 0.862
- Asia
2 countries share 0.819
- EuropeDenmark0.913
- Oceania
New Zealand0.849 - Every region
02Every measured country
Electoral democracy on a map
Each country is shaded by its value, in five groups holding the same number of countries. Hover a country for its value, or select it to open its profile. Below the map, each continent’s middle country.
Darker is a higher value — the better end.
- 0.016–0.187
- 0.193–0.377
- 0.386–0.605
- 0.607–0.773
- 0.781–0.913
- No reading in 2025
- Europe
0.778
the middle country, of 40 measured · 49 members
Denmark0.913
Belarus0.163Highest and lowest reading in Europe.
- Oceania
0.712
the middle country, of 6 measured · 21 members
New Zealand0.849
Papua New Guinea0.467Highest and lowest reading in Oceania.
- Americas
0.679
the middle country, of 27 measured · 48 members
2 share 0.862
Nicaragua0.151Highest and lowest reading in Americas.
- Africa
0.302
the middle country, of 55 measured · 55 members
Seychelles0.760Eritrea0.069Highest and lowest reading in Africa.
- Asia
0.288
the middle country, of 48 measured · 52 members
2 share 0.819
Saudi Arabia0.016Highest and lowest reading in Asia.
- Every region
20 sub-regions, highest middle country first
- Northern Europe
0.869
the middle country, of 10 measured · 13 members
Denmark0.913
United Kingdom0.772Highest and lowest reading in Northern Europe.
- Western Europe
0.865
the middle country, of 7 measured · 9 members
Belgium0.889
Germany0.828Highest and lowest reading in Western Europe.
- Caribbean
0.761
the middle country, of 6 measured · 24 members
Jamaica0.805
Cuba0.176Highest and lowest reading in Caribbean.
- Southern Europe
0.686
the middle country, of 13 measured · 17 members
2 share 0.822
Serbia0.300Highest and lowest reading in Southern Europe.
- South America
0.673
the middle country, of 12 measured · 12 members
Uruguay0.862
Venezuela0.181Highest and lowest reading in South America.
- Southern Africa
0.661
the middle country, of 5 measured · 5 members
South Africa0.743
Eswatini0.128Highest and lowest reading in Southern Africa.
- Eastern Europe
0.576
the middle country, of 10 measured · 10 members
Czechia0.849Belarus0.163Highest and lowest reading in Eastern Europe.
- Eastern Asia
0.535
the middle country, of 7 measured · 8 members
2 share 0.819
China0.072Highest and lowest reading in Eastern Asia.
- Central America
0.511
the middle country, of 7 measured · 8 members
Costa Rica0.862Nicaragua0.151Highest and lowest reading in Central America.
- Western Africa
0.433
the middle country, of 16 measured · 16 members
Cabo Verde0.745
Burkina Faso0.134Highest and lowest reading in Western Africa.
- South-eastern Asia
0.408
the middle country, of 10 measured · 11 members
Timor-Leste0.736
Myanmar0.080Highest and lowest reading in South-eastern Asia.
- Southern Asia
0.377
the middle country, of 9 measured · 9 members
Sri Lanka0.783
Afghanistan0.069Highest and lowest reading in Southern Asia.
- Middle Africa
0.293
the middle country, of 9 measured · 9 members
São Tomé and Príncipe0.632
Equatorial Guinea0.172Highest and lowest reading in Middle Africa.
- Eastern Africa
0.279
the middle country, of 19 measured · 19 members
Seychelles0.760Eritrea0.069Highest and lowest reading in Eastern Africa.
- Northern Africa
0.226
the middle country, of 6 measured · 6 members
Tunisia0.395
Sudan0.130Highest and lowest reading in Northern Africa.
- Central Asia
0.218
the middle country, of 5 measured · 5 members
Kyrgyzstan0.313
Turkmenistan0.148Highest and lowest reading in Central Asia.
- Western Asia
0.175
the middle country, of 17 measured · 19 members
Cyprus0.773Saudi Arabia0.016Highest and lowest reading in Western Asia.
- Australia and New Zealand
2 of 2 measured — too few for a middle: Australia, New Zealand.
New Zealand0.849
Australia0.844Highest and lowest reading in Australia and New Zealand.
- Melanesia
4 of 5 measured — too few for a middle: Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu.
Vanuatu0.729Papua New Guinea0.467Highest and lowest reading in Melanesia.
- Northern America
2 of 4 measured — too few for a middle: Canada, United States.
Canada0.840
United States0.735Highest and lowest reading in Northern America.
03The whole field at once
The spread
176 countries, one dot each, on one scale — further right is a higher value. Half the countries are above 0.498; a quarter are above 0.736, and a quarter below 0.248. The bar in each row marks that continent’s middle country.
04All 176 ever measured
Every country
In order, highest value first. “=” marks a position shared with another country. V-Dem Institute, University of Gothenburg ranks nobody on this measure; the position is derived here by ordering the published values. The index is about elections specifically, not about rights in general, so a country with clean elections and weak courts can sit higher here than a reader expects.
Showing 25 of 176 countries
Values for 2025. The change column compares 2025 with 2024 only; the sparkline covers the recent editions.
051990–2025 · 36 editions
Over time
Each point is one year from 1990. V-Dem’s liberal, participatory, deliberative and egalitarian indices sit beside the headline, all on the same 0–1 scale — a country can move on one and not the others.
- the middle country
- the middle half of countries
- the middle of the 167 countries measured every time
- each continent’s middle country
The same, year by year
| Year | Countries | Middle country | Middle half | Measured every time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 176 | 0.498 | 0.248 – 0.736 | 0.493 |
| 2024 | 176 | 0.497 | 0.247 – 0.731 | 0.496 |
| 2023 | 176 | 0.507 | 0.258 – 0.726 | 0.506 |
| 2022 | 176 | 0.513 | 0.262 – 0.740 | 0.504 |
| 2021 | 176 | 0.529 | 0.260 – 0.754 | 0.526 |
| 2020 | 176 | 0.531 | 0.284 – 0.759 | 0.533 |
| 2019 | 176 | 0.528 | 0.298 – 0.754 | 0.528 |
| 2018 | 176 | 0.529 | 0.303 – 0.748 | 0.530 |
| 2017 | 176 | 0.540 | 0.300 – 0.749 | 0.539 |
| 2016 | 176 | 0.536 | 0.303 – 0.753 | 0.538 |
| 2015 | 176 | 0.536 | 0.302 – 0.759 | 0.539 |
| 2014 | 176 | 0.530 | 0.305 – 0.763 | 0.534 |
| 2013 | 176 | 0.521 | 0.312 – 0.767 | 0.523 |
| 2012 | 176 | 0.518 | 0.318 – 0.775 | 0.524 |
| 2011 | 176 | 0.522 | 0.317 – 0.770 | 0.524 |
| 2010 | 175 | 0.525 | 0.311 – 0.776 | 0.514 |
| 2009 | 175 | 0.517 | 0.310 – 0.775 | 0.517 |
| 2008 | 175 | 0.512 | 0.314 – 0.775 | 0.510 |
| 2007 | 175 | 0.522 | 0.296 – 0.777 | 0.522 |
| 2006 | 175 | 0.542 | 0.293 – 0.774 | 0.542 |
| 2005 | 175 | 0.520 | 0.279 – 0.769 | 0.518 |
| 2004 | 175 | 0.527 | 0.258 – 0.767 | 0.520 |
| 2003 | 175 | 0.529 | 0.266 – 0.768 | 0.529 |
| 2002 | 175 | 0.506 | 0.265 – 0.767 | 0.506 |
| 2001 | 175 | 0.494 | 0.254 – 0.763 | 0.496 |
| 2000 | 175 | 0.478 | 0.253 – 0.769 | 0.486 |
| 1999 | 175 | 0.491 | 0.260 – 0.754 | 0.491 |
| 1998 | 174 | 0.490 | 0.259 – 0.758 | 0.491 |
| 1997 | 173 | 0.478 | 0.246 – 0.743 | 0.486 |
| 1996 | 173 | 0.461 | 0.245 – 0.741 | 0.484 |
| 1995 | 173 | 0.473 | 0.227 – 0.732 | 0.481 |
| 1994 | 173 | 0.450 | 0.217 – 0.731 | 0.467 |
| 1993 | 173 | 0.442 | 0.229 – 0.731 | 0.444 |
| 1992 | 172 | 0.378 | 0.200 – 0.714 | 0.403 |
| 1991 | 171 | 0.336 | 0.194 – 0.688 | 0.367 |
| 1990 | 167 | 0.313 | 0.171 – 0.706 | 0.313 |
062024 → 2025
Who rose and fell
The biggest changes in value between the two newest editions. Places are shown second, because they also move when other countries do.
Improved most
before → after
Mauritius0.495 → 0.738 · 91st → 44th+0.243- Sri Lanka0.677 → 0.783 · 55th → 33rd+0.106
South Korea0.724 → 0.819 · 48th → 24th+0.095
Gabon0.227 → 0.302 · 135th → 116th+0.075
Lebanon0.347 → 0.419 · 110th → 100th+0.072
Declined most
before → after- United States0.843 → 0.735 · 16th → 46th−0.108
Georgia0.480 → 0.401 · 94th → 101st−0.079- Vanuatu0.800 → 0.729 · 30th → 49th−0.071
Moldova0.622 → 0.553 · 69th → 81st−0.069
Kuwait0.198 → 0.138 · 140th → 161st−0.060
176 countries were measured in both 2024 and 2025.
07Across every edition
Electoral democracy in records
The extremes of the statistic. A record reached by more than one country names none of them.
Highest reading on record
0.922
Electoral democracy index (0–1)
Lowest reading on record
0.013
Electoral democracy index (0–1)
Biggest improvement between editions
+0.437
0.328 → 0.765
Biggest decline between editions
−0.359
0.634 → 0.275
Most improved since first measured
+0.659
0.077 → 0.736
At the top most often
21 of 36
editions, alone at the first-listed end
08The measure
About electoral democracy
V-Dem’s Electoral Democracy Index measures how far a country’s rulers are actually made responsive to its citizens through elections, on a 0–1 scale. Built at the University of Gothenburg from the judgements of thousands of country experts, it is the most detailed democracy dataset in existence.
What the number is: Electoral democracy index (0–1).
What it does not measure
It measures electoral democracy only; how far power is checked between elections, and how equally citizens take part, are separate V-Dem indices.
09Where it fits
Connections
Its part in the Country Index, the statistics whose values line up most closely with it across countries, and others on the same subject.
In the Country Index
A key statistic for Democracy & Civil Liberties
“Regime type as assessed by scholars: whether elections are genuine and whether rulers can be removed by them.”
- Edition used
- 2025 (data 2025)
- Countries
- 176
- Licence
- CC BY-SA 4.0
Moves with
Where electoral democracy is higher, these tend to be higher too.
- Voice and AccountabilityWorld Bank Group · 175 countries in commonρ 0.94
- Civic Space RatingsKeyCIVICUS · 176 countries in commonρ 0.92
- Physical Violence IndexKeyV-Dem Institute, University of Gothenburg · 176 countries in commonρ 0.86
Moves against
Where electoral democracy is higher, these tend to be lower.
- Informal Employment RateILO · 86 countries in commonρ −0.65
- Social Institutions and Gender IndexKeyOECD · 138 countries in commonρ −0.64
- INFORM Risk IndexKeyEuropean Commission Joint Research Centre, with the Inter-Agency Standing Committee · 172 countries in commonρ −0.55
Rank correlation (ρ, from −1 to 1) across countries, on each statistic’s newest edition, out of 124 statistics sharing at least 80 countries with this one. Two statistics that move together do not cause each other.
10Keep reading
Explore further
More from V-Dem Institute, University of Gothenburg
11Questions
Electoral democracy: questions and answers
Which country has the highest electoral democracy?
Denmark, at 0.913, among the 176 countries compared in 2025.
Which country has the lowest electoral democracy?
Saudi Arabia, at 0.016, among the 176 countries compared in 2025.
How many countries does the V-Dem Electoral Democracy Index cover?
176 in 2025. The number measured varies from 167 to 176 between editions.
What is the world average electoral democracy?
This site does not calculate a world average, which would depend on how countries are weighted. In the middle country of the 176 compared in 2025, the figure was 0.498.
Is this V-Dem Institute, University of Gothenburg’s own ranking?
No. V-Dem Institute, University of Gothenburg publishes the values but ranks nobody; the position on this page is derived by Nations Inquiry by ordering the published values, and equal values share a position.
How often is the V-Dem Electoral Democracy Index published?
This site holds 36 editions, describing 1990 to 2025.
Where does the data come from, and can I download it?
From V-Dem Institute, University of Gothenburg, under CC BY-SA 4.0. From the V-Dem Institute’s annual dataset. V-Dem’s data actually runs to 1789, and the series is cut at 1990 deliberately: the deep history is populated by states that no longer exist, and every row here keys to a present-day country. Every edition is available on this site’s Datasets pages as a full table, unrounded.
12Method
Sources, method and citation
Source
V-Dem Electoral Democracy Index — V-Dem Institute, University of Gothenburg
From the V-Dem Institute’s annual dataset. V-Dem’s data actually runs to 1789, and the series is cut at 1990 deliberately: the deep history is populated by states that no longer exist, and every row here keys to a present-day country.
Newest edition
Report year 2025Data year 2025
Cite the source as: Coppedge, M. et al. V-Dem Country-Year Dataset v16. Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) Project, University of Gothenburg.
Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0, checked 2026-09-05.
How this page reads the numbers
- V-Dem Institute, University of Gothenburg ranks nobody on this measure. The position is derived by Nations Inquiry by ordering the published values; equal values share a position.
- Which end is better follows the publisher’s own reading of the measure.
- A country is named at an end only when it holds that value alone. Where several share it, the page says how many and names none first.
- Values are stored exactly as published and trimmed only for display. “The middle country” is the median of the countries measured, not a world average.
The full note on this data
36 reference years (1990–2025), covering 168 to 176 countries. The headline column is V-Dem’s Electoral Democracy Index (v2x_polyarchy), its flagship measure of how far rulers are made responsive to citizens through elections; the liberal, participatory, deliberative and egalitarian indices are stored beside it, all on a 0–1 scale. ⚠ V-Dem’s data actually runs back to 1789, and the series is cut at 1990 deliberately: the deep history is populated by entities that no longer exist (Baden, the Papal States, Piedmont-Sardinia), and every row here keys to a present-day country. ⚠ Five entities from 1990 on are excluded for the same reason - three sub-state units V-Dem scores separately (Palestine/Gaza, Palestine/West Bank and Zanzibar) and two states that dissolved in 1990 (the German Democratic Republic and South Yemen). ⚠ V-Dem publishes no rank, so none is stored; the POSITION shown on the statistics page is derived here by ordering the score, and labelled as ours.
Photographs
The countries at the top of this statistic, from their profiles: Wikimedia Commons, shown in greyscale, each used under the licence named.
- Denmark — User:Aconcagua, CC BY-SA 3.0
- Norway — Ximonic , Simo Räsänen, CC BY-SA 3.0
- Belgium — Gf uip, CC BY-SA 3.0
Cite this page
Nations Inquiry (2026). Electoral democracy by country: V-Dem Electoral Democracy Index, data from V-Dem Institute, University of Gothenburg. https://nationsinquiry.com/statistics/vdem-democracy