Democracy Index

The Democracy Index is an index compiled by The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU). This is the research division of the Economist Group, a UK-based private company which publishes the weekly newspaper The Economist.

The index is a bit like the Human Development Index but more concerned with politics and freedoms. The index shows the state of democracy in 167 countries and territories, of which 166 are sovereign states and 164 are UN member states.

The 2022 Economist Intelligence Unit Democracy Index map

Full democracies

  9.01–10

  8.01–9

Flawed democracies

  7.01–8

  6.01–7

Hybrid regimes

  5.01–6

  4.01–5

Authoritarian regimes

  3.01–4

  2.01–3

  0–2.00

No data

  

The index is based on 60 indicators grouped in five different categories, measuring democracy and civil liberties. In addition to a numeric score and a ranking, the index categorizes each country into one of four regime types: full democracies, flawed democracies, hybrid regimes, and authoritarian regimes. The first Democracy Index report was published in 2006. Reports were published every two years until 2010, and then annually.