Democracy deteriorated globally in 2024

Brussels – Democracy is not doing well globally. In the super-election year that just finished, the health of the global democratic system deteriorated to the worst results in nearly two decades. Western Europe holds, but other world regions have backtracked significantly.

“Democracy is the worst system of government, except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.” The famous phrase of Winston Churchill in a speech to the House of Commons in November 1947 (moreover, quoting an unknown author) continues to hold today. Democracy is a political, institutional system full of problems and contradictions, resting on a precarious balance constantly on the verge of breaking down. Yet, it is the only one, at least among those tried in the history of mass human societies, capable of guaranteeing a satisfactory level of freedom and equality for all.

How the survey works

However, according to the latest survey published today (Feb. 27) by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), democracy is not enjoying good health worldwide. Health deteriorated during 2024 despite being a record year for the number and scope of elections. Indeed, since it began collecting its data in 2006, the EIU has never painted such a bleak picture.

Western Europe has the largest number of “full democracies”, with Nordic countries dominating four of the top seven positions in EIU’s Democracy Index 2024. Find out why in our free report: https://t.co/DjI3ShbhQZ#DemocracyIndex #Markets #Economy pic.twitter.com/aFzQPCVMG3

— Economist Intelligence: EIU (@TheEIU) February 27, 2025

The Economist analysts assign a score from zero to ten to 167 countries and territories based on five criteria: electoral process and pluralism, functioning of government, political participation, political culture, and civil liberties. The countries are then grouped into four categories: full democracies, flawed democracies, hybrid regimes, and authoritarian regimes.

Some global trends

The average global score dropped to 5.17, touching a new all-time low: the highest value was reached in 2015 (with 5.55), while in 2023, the aggregate figure stood at 5.23. In a perhaps counterintuitive development, despite 2024 being a super-election year (about 1.65 billion votes in more than 75 countries, according to EIU calculations), the index related to the electoral process dropped 0.08 points compared to 2023 due to elections that were not always free and fair, as well as even substantial restrictions on freedom of speech and association.

The index of functioning of government saw an even more significant drop (-0.13) to 4.53 points globally”This poor performance is the result of the fundamental weaknesses that plague democratic systems, both developed and developing,” the analysts say. “Inaction, dysfunction, corruption, insufficient transparency, and lack of accountability have undermined public trust in governments, political parties, and politicians,” they continue, which is why “citizen confidence in democratic institutions has been declining for many years.”

Only 6.6 percent of the global population lives in a complete democracy, just over half of the 12.5 percent a decade ago. Counting even those living in an imperfect democracy, comes to just over 45 percent. Nearly two out of every five people (39.2 percent of the total) live in an authoritarian regime (a category that includes 60 states around the world, mainly among the African and Asian continents), with the remaining about 15 percent in hybrid regimes that combine electoral democracy and authoritarian tendencies.

The overall ranking

In 2024, the most democratic country in the world was Norway for the 16th year in a row (with 9.81 points out of the maximum of 10). The other podium positions went to New Zealand and Sweden (9.61 and 9.39, respectively), while at the bottom of the rankings were Afghanistan (0.25), Myanmar (0.96), and North Korea (1.08). The United States is 28th with 7.85 points (imperfect democracy), India is 41st with 7.29 (imperfect democracy), Ukraine is 92nd with 4.9 points (hybrid regime), China is 145th at 2.11 (authoritarian regime), and Russia is 150th at 2.03 (authoritarian regime).

Except for New Zealand, the top ten rankings are all European countries; after Norway and Sweden are Iceland, Switzerland, Finland, Denmark, Ireland, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg. The United Kingdom rose from 18th to 17th place with 8.34 points. Consequently, the Western European region is the only one to improve its aggregate score (albeit by an imperceptible 0.01), averaging 8.38 points in 2024.

In contrast, there was a deterioration in the Middle East & North Africa (-0.11 points) and Asia & Australasia (-0.10). Of the 167 countries and territories analyzed by the EIU, only 37 showed some improvement over the previous year.

How’s the EU doing?”

As for EU member states, 13 out of 27 are complete democracies (in order of score: Germany, Austria, Estonia and Spain tied, Czechia and Portugal tied, and Greece), while the remaining are imperfect democracies. Among the latter, France is 26th (with 7.99 points), Italy 37th (7.58), and Poland 39th (7.4). At the bottom of the ranking is Romania, with 72nd place out of 167, which stops just below sufficiency (5.99 points) and thus falls into the group of hybrid regimes.

France fell in category between 2023 and 2024, dropping out of the family of complete democracies (you need at least 8 out of 10 points to rank that way) due to the deteriorating index of trust in government following last year’s deep political crisis.

As for Romania, the downgrade to a hybrid regime – the only member state in this category – followed the political-institutional chaos after the annulment of presidential elections in December as a result of Russian interference (just yesterday, the pro-Russian candidate and main suspect, Călin Georgesc, was briefly detained).

Instead, there were positive evolutions in Czechia, Estonia, and Portugal, which have joined the family of complete democracies.