🗳️ Democracy strengthened or did not deteriorate in three quarters of the world's countries during 2025

• Nearly three quarters of the world's countries received higher or unchanged scores in the 2025 democracy index.
• Latin America and the Caribbean broke a nine-year decline and improved their results.
• The global index rose by 0.02 points, one of the largest increases since 2012.

The British analysis organization EIU has tracked the development of democracy around the world since 2006. The latest update of its democracy index showed that the long decline may be coming to a halt. Nearly three quarters of the 167 countries included in the study received either higher or unchanged scores compared to the previous year.

The Nordics dominated the top

EIU rates countries on a scale from zero to ten and sorts them into four categories: full democracies, flawed democracies, hybrid regimes, and authoritarian regimes. Norway retained first place as the world's most democratic country, a position it has held for 16 years. New Zealand came in second, followed by the other Nordic countries in positions three through six. Denmark climbed four places to third, helped in part by how the government handled issues surrounding Greenland, which raised its score for how well the state functions.

Latin America turned the trend around

The region that improved the most was Latin America and the Caribbean. After nine years of decline, scores rose in more than half of the region's countries. Higher political participation was an important driver behind the upturn. A similar development may be underway in other parts of the world as well. Asia and sub-Saharan Africa have young populations, and protests in Nepal, Kenya, and Madagascar drew large crowds into political engagement during the year.

High voter turnout in several countries

Several countries recorded unusually high voter turnout during the year. Canada climbed five places to ninth after its highest voter turnout in over 30 years. Romania moved up from a hybrid regime to a flawed democracy, partly thanks to strong voter turnout. Most of the improvements in the 2025 index occurred in the middle of the rankings, which indicated that the development was broad rather than concentrated in individual countries.

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