Electoral democracy

How this is measured

V-Dem’s polyarchy index: elected officials, free and fair elections, freedom of expression, freedom of association and the share of adults with the vote, combined. A deliberately narrow definition — it is about how leaders are chosen and nothing else — which is why a country can score well here and badly on rule of law. Because it is coded by country experts and then put through a measurement model, every value is an estimate with a credible interval around it. V-Dem publishes those intervals; this site shows only the point estimate, so how firm any single number is cannot be read off the screen. The intervals are wider where fewer experts coded a country and in the earlier centuries, which is exactly where the long series is most tempting to read closely.

163 countries and territories have a figure for 2025. This is the most recent year the series covers well; the viewer holds every year from 1789.

Data by year

Source and licence

Other government statistics