How democratic is each country?
Click any country to see its electoral democracy score — a 0-to-1 index of free elections, expression and association from the V-Dem project.
Overview
V-Dem's electoral democracy index scores countries from 0 to 1 on how free and fair their elections are and how well rights of expression and association are protected. This map shows where each country stands.
Key facts
- The highest-scoring democracies are above 0.85; the most autocratic below 0.10.
- The index weighs free elections, suffrage, and freedom of expression and association.
- It comes from the V-Dem project, not the EIU index (which cannot be redistributed).
Common questions
What is the electoral democracy index?
A 0-to-1 score from the Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) project measuring how far a country achieves free and fair elections, universal suffrage, and freedoms of expression and association.
Why V-Dem and not the EIU Democracy Index?
The EIU index is not licensed for redistribution. V-Dem is openly available, covers more countries, and is widely used in research.
Where does the data come from?
The V-Dem project, compiled via Our World in Data.
Sources & methodology
Data from V-Dem (via Our World in Data), compiled via Our World in Data. Global figures are population-weighted across the countries that report this measure; countries without reliable recent data are shown as “no data”.
Last updated: 3 August 2026.
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