Political rights score

Freedom House’s rating of electoral process, pluralism and government function.

measured by: Freedom House
years covered: 2002–2025
subject: Personal

Higher means more freedom.

How this is measured

Ten questions scored 0–4 across the electoral process, political pluralism and participation, and whether government actually functions. The stated range is 0–40, but the shipped series runs from −4 to 44 and both ends are worth knowing about. The negative scores are real: Freedom House applies a discretionary deduction of up to four points where a state has forcibly changed the ethnic composition of a territory, so Sudan reaches −4 and around sixty country-years sit below zero. The single 44 is not — Luxembourg in 2002, where every other top-scoring country records 40 — and it is reproduced here rather than quietly corrected, because this site transcribes its sources and does not edit them. Combined with the civil liberties score it produces the Free / Partly Free / Not Free label that gets quoted; keeping the two apart is more informative, because they often move separately.

Ranked for 2025

167 countries and territories have a figure for 2025. This is the most recent year the series covers well; the viewer holds every year from 2002.

#	Country	Region	Rights (FH)
1	Germany	Europe	40.0
2	Denmark	Europe	40.0
3	Finland	Europe	40.0
4	Ireland	Europe	40.0
5	Japan	Asia-Pacific	40.0
6	New Zealand	Asia-Pacific	40.0
7	Sweden	Europe	40.0
8	Uruguay	Americas	40.0
9	Australia	Asia-Pacific	39.0
10	Canada	Americas	39.0
11	Switzerland	Europe	39.0
12	Estonia	Europe	39.0
13	United Kingdom	Europe	39.0
14	Netherlands	Europe	39.0
15	Norway	Europe	39.0
16	Portugal	Europe	39.0
17	Slovenia	Europe	39.0
18	Austria	Europe	38.0
19	Belgium	Europe	38.0
20	Bahamas	Americas	38.0
21	Chile	Americas	38.0
22	Costa Rica	Americas	38.0
23	Cyprus	Europe	38.0
24	France	Europe	38.0
25	Iceland	Europe	38.0
26	Lithuania	Europe	38.0
27	Luxembourg	Europe	38.0
28	Taiwan	Asia-Pacific	38.0
29	Czechia	Europe	37.0
30	Spain	Europe	37.0
31	Latvia	Europe	37.0
32	Mongolia	Asia-Pacific	36.0
33	Argentina	Americas	35.0
34	Ghana	Sub-Saharan Africa	35.0
35	Greece	Europe	35.0
36	Italy	Europe	35.0
37	Panama	Americas	35.0
38	Romania	Europe	35.0
39	Suriname	Americas	35.0
40	Slovakia	Europe	35.0
41	Belize	Americas	34.0
42	Croatia	Europe	34.0
43	Israel	Middle East & North Africa	34.0
44	Jamaica	Americas	34.0
45	Poland	Europe	34.0
46	Trinidad and Tobago	Americas	34.0
47	South Africa	Sub-Saharan Africa	34.0
48	Bhutan	Asia-Pacific	33.0
49	South Korea	Asia-Pacific	33.0
50	Timor-Leste	Asia-Pacific	33.0
51	United States	Americas	32.0
52	Vanuatu	Asia-Pacific	32.0
53	Botswana	Sub-Saharan Africa	31.0
54	Colombia	Americas	31.0
55	India	Asia-Pacific	31.0
56	Liberia	Sub-Saharan Africa	31.0
57	Lesotho	Sub-Saharan Africa	31.0
58	Bulgaria	Europe	30.0
59	Bolivia	Americas	30.0
60	Brazil	Americas	30.0
61	Malawi	Sub-Saharan Africa	30.0
62	Senegal	Sub-Saharan Africa	30.0
63	Guyana	Americas	29.0
64	Sri Lanka	Asia-Pacific	29.0
65	Albania	Europe	28.0
66	Fiji	Asia-Pacific	28.0
67	Indonesia	Asia-Pacific	28.0
68	North Macedonia	Europe	28.0
69	Namibia	Sub-Saharan Africa	28.0
70	Dominican Republic	Americas	27.0
71	Ecuador	Americas	27.0
72	Nepal	Asia-Pacific	27.0
73	Peru	Americas	27.0
74	Solomon Islands	Asia-Pacific	27.0
75	Mexico	Americas	26.0
76	Montenegro	Europe	26.0
77	Paraguay	Americas	26.0
78	Moldova	Eurasia	25.0
79	Philippines	Asia-Pacific	25.0
80	Hungary	Europe	24.0
81	Armenia	Eurasia	23.0
82	Sierra Leone	Sub-Saharan Africa	23.0
83	Gambia	Sub-Saharan Africa	22.0
84	Malaysia	Asia-Pacific	22.0
85	Papua New Guinea	Asia-Pacific	22.0
86	Ukraine	Eurasia	22.0
87	Zambia	Sub-Saharan Africa	22.0
88	Honduras	Americas	21.0
89	Kenya	Sub-Saharan Africa	21.0
90	Nigeria	Sub-Saharan Africa	20.0
91	Benin	Sub-Saharan Africa	19.0
92	Georgia	Eurasia	19.0
93	Guatemala	Americas	19.0
94	Serbia	Europe	18.0
95	Bosnia and Herzegovina	Europe	17.0
96	Côte d'Ivoire	Sub-Saharan Africa	17.0
97	Iraq	Middle East & North Africa	16.0
98	Madagascar	Sub-Saharan Africa	16.0
99	Turkey	Eurasia	16.0
100	Bangladesh	Asia-Pacific	15.0
101	Lebanon	Middle East & North Africa	15.0
102	Mauritania	Sub-Saharan Africa	15.0
103	El Salvador	Americas	15.0
104	Morocco	Middle East & North Africa	13.0
105	Mozambique	Sub-Saharan Africa	13.0
106	Jordan	Middle East & North Africa	12.0
107	Pakistan	Asia-Pacific	12.0
108	Togo	Sub-Saharan Africa	11.0
109	Thailand	Asia-Pacific	11.0
110	Tunisia	Middle East & North Africa	11.0
111	Angola	Sub-Saharan Africa	10.0
112	Algeria	Middle East & North Africa	10.0
113	Uganda	Sub-Saharan Africa	10.0
114	Ethiopia	Sub-Saharan Africa	8.0
115	Zimbabwe	Sub-Saharan Africa	8.0
116	Brunei	Asia-Pacific	7.0
117	Guinea-Bissau	Sub-Saharan Africa	7.0
118	Kuwait	Middle East & North Africa	7.0
119	Qatar	Middle East & North Africa	7.0
120	Rwanda	Sub-Saharan Africa	7.0
121	Cameroon	Sub-Saharan Africa	6.0
122	Egypt	Middle East & North Africa	6.0
123	Guinea	Sub-Saharan Africa	6.0
124	Oman	Middle East & North Africa	6.0
125	Tanzania	Sub-Saharan Africa	6.0
126	United Arab Emirates	Middle East & North Africa	5.0
127	Djibouti	Sub-Saharan Africa	5.0
128	Gabon	Sub-Saharan Africa	5.0
129	Haiti	Americas	5.0
130	Kazakhstan	Eurasia	5.0
131	Democratic Republic of the Congo	Sub-Saharan Africa	4.0
132	Iran	Middle East & North Africa	4.0
133	Kyrgyzstan	Eurasia	4.0
134	Cambodia	Asia-Pacific	4.0
135	Russia	Eurasia	4.0
136	Vietnam	Asia-Pacific	4.0
137	Mali	Sub-Saharan Africa	3.0
138	Niger	Sub-Saharan Africa	3.0
139	Burundi	Sub-Saharan Africa	2.0
140	Burkina Faso	Sub-Saharan Africa	2.0
141	Congo	Sub-Saharan Africa	2.0
142	Laos	Asia-Pacific	2.0
143	Libya	Middle East & North Africa	2.0
144	Nicaragua	Americas	2.0
145	Somalia	Sub-Saharan Africa	2.0
146	Uzbekistan	Eurasia	2.0
147	Afghanistan	Asia-Pacific	1.0
148	Belarus	Eurasia	1.0
149	Central African Republic	Sub-Saharan Africa	1.0
150	Eritrea	Sub-Saharan Africa	1.0
151	Saudi Arabia	Middle East & North Africa	1.0
152	Eswatini	Sub-Saharan Africa	1.0
153	Chad	Sub-Saharan Africa	1.0
154	Yemen	Middle East & North Africa	1.0
155	Azerbaijan	Eurasia	0.0
156	Cuba	Americas	0.0
157	Equatorial Guinea	Sub-Saharan Africa	0.0
158	North Korea	Asia-Pacific	0.0
159	Tajikistan	Eurasia	0.0
160	Turkmenistan	Eurasia	0.0
161	Venezuela	Americas	0.0
162	China	Asia-Pacific	-2.0
163	Myanmar	Asia-Pacific	-2.0
164	Syria	Middle East & North Africa	-2.0
165	Western Sahara	Middle East & North Africa	-3.0
166	Sudan	Sub-Saharan Africa	-4.0
167	South Sudan	Sub-Saharan Africa	-4.0

Data by year

Show 24 yearly JSON rankings

Follow a year link to open the complete world ranking, including country names, values, positions, source and licence.

Source and licence

Freedom House — Freedom in the World

Non-commercial use with citation; adaptation not addressed. Freedom House, Freedom in the World How every source was checked

Other personal statistics

Freedom of expression Freedom of association Civil liberties Freedom from political violence Equal protection of rights Academic freedom Media censorship effort Harassment of journalists Media self-censorship Universal right to vote Legal rights for women Women can get a passport as men do Access to justice for women Access to justice for men Civil liberties score