Freedom in the World is a yearly survey and report by the U.S.-based non-governmental organization Freedom House that measures the degree of civil liberties and political rights in every nation and significant related and disputed territories around the world.
Origin and use
Freedom in the World was launched in 1973 by Raymond Gastil. It produces annual scores representing the levels of political rights and civil liberties in each state and territory, on a scale from 1 (most free) to 7 (least free). Depending on the ratings, the nations are then classified as "Free", "Partly Free", or "Not Free". The report is often used by researchers in order to measure democracy and correlates highly with several other measures of democracy such as the Polity data series.
The Freedom House rankings are widely reported in the media and used as sources by political researchers. Their construction and use has been evaluated by critics and supporters.
Country rankings
The rankings are from the Freedom in the World 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2022 surveys, each report covering the previous year. The average of each pair of ratings on political rights and civil liberties determines the overall status of "Free" (1.0–2.5), "Partly Free" (3.0–5.0), or "Not Free" (5.5–7.0).
An asterisk (*) indicates countries which are "electoral democracies". To qualify as an "electoral democracy", a state must have satisfied the following criteria:
A competitive, multiparty political system; Adult suffrage for all citizens without criminal convictions (some states may further punish and subjugate people with criminal convictions by disenfranchising them from the democratic process); Regularly contested elections conducted in conditions of ballot secrecy, reasonable ballot security, and the absence of massive voter fraud that yields results that are unrepresentative of the public will; and Significant public access of major political parties to the electorate through the media and through generally open political campaigning.
An electoral democracy must have a score of 7 or more out of 12 in political rights subcategory A (Electoral Progress), an overall aggregate score of 20 in their political rights rating and an overall aggregate score of 30 in their civil liberties rating.
Freedom House's term "electoral democracy" differs from "liberal democracy" in that the latter also implies the presence of a substantial array of civil liberties. In the survey, all Free countries qualify as both electoral and liberal democracies. By contrast, some Partly Free countries qualify as electoral, but not liberal, democracies.
World
* indicates "Civil liberties in country or territory" or "Human rights in country or territory" links.
PR = political rights, CL = civil liberties
Territories and countries with limited recognition
Former entries
Former entries from Freedom in the World. Most are territories added in the 1978 report for 1977 and received their last coverage in the 2000 report of the same year. Other territories with differing dates are noted below. Their placements are based on their final rankings before ceasing coverage.
Free
(1992–2000)
(1988–2000)
(1972–1993)
French Guiana
(1972–1990)
Guadeloupe
Martinique
Mayotte
New Caledonia
Northern Ireland (1991–2004)
(1977–2016) Réunion Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha Saint Martin Saint Pierre and Miquelon (1992–2006) Svalbard (1992–2000)
Wallis and Futuna
Partly Free
(1992–2004) (1977–2004) (1977–1979) (1984–1988) West Papua (1990–2003) (1972–1976) (1972–1990) Yugoslavia (1972–1992)
Not Free
(1977–1994) (1998–2009) (1981–1994) (1972–1990) (1977–1978) Occupied Territories (1977–2010) Palestinian Territories (1997–2010) (1988–1994) (1979–1994) (1972–1990) (1972–1976)
Vojvodina (1992–1995) (1972–1990)
Trends
According to Freedom House, a quarter of all declines of freedom in the world in 2016 took place in Europe.
Percentage of countries in each category, from the 1973 through 2021 reports:
Sources: Country Status and ratings overview 1973–2016, Number and percentages of electoral democracies 1989–2016, Freedom in the World 2018 report covering 2017.
Notes: The years shown in the map and table above are the year the survey was released, the data shown covers the prior calendar year. The chart and table above do not include data for related/disputed territories.