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Parts of this article (those related to The table is updated only up to 2022 (and not fully)) need to be updated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. (April 2024)

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:

1. A competitive, multiparty political system;
2. 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);
3. 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
4. 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

2024

Before 2024

Country	Electoral democracy	2019				2020				2021				2022				2023
		PR	CL	Free	Pts	PR	CL	Free	Pts	PR	CL	Free	Pts	PR	CL	Free	Pts	PR	CL	Free	Pts
Afghanistan *	No	5	6	Not	27	5	6	Not	27	5	6	Not	27	7	7	Not	2
Albania *	Yes	3	3	Partly	68	3	3	Partly	67	3	3	Partly	66	3	3	Partly	67
Algeria *	No	6	5	Not	34	6	5	Not	34	6	5	Not	32	6	5	Not	32
Andorra *	Yes	1	1	Free	94	1	1	Free	94	1	1	Free	93	1	1	Free	93
Angola *	No	6	5	Not	31	6	5	Not	32	6	5	Not	31	6	5	Not	30
Antigua and Barbuda	Yes	2	2	Free	84	2	2	Free	85	2	2	Free	85	2	2	Free	85
Argentina *	Yes	2	2	Free	84	2	2	Free	85	2	2	Free	84	2	2	Free	84
Armenia *	No	4	4	Partly	51	4	4	Partly	53	4	4	Partly	55	4	4	Partly	55
Australia *	Yes	1	1	Free	98	1	1	Free	97	1	1	Free	97	1	1	Free	95
Austria *	Yes	1	1	Free	93	1	1	Free	93	1	1	Free	93	1	1	Free	93
Azerbaijan *	No	7	6	Not	11	7	6	Not	10	7	6	Not	10	7	6	Not	9
Bahamas	Yes	1	1	Free	91	1	1	Free	91	1	1	Free	91	1	1	Free	91
Bahrain *	No	7	6	Not	12	7	6	Not	11	7	6	Not	12	7	6	Not	12
Bangladesh *	No	5	5	Partly	41	5	5	Partly	39	5	5	Partly	39	5	5	Partly	39
Barbados	Yes	1	1	Free	96	1	1	Free	95	1	1	Free	95	1	1	Free	95
Belarus *	No	7	6	Not	19	7	6	Not	19	7	6	Not	11	7	7	Not	8
Belgium *	Yes	1	1	Free	96	1	1	Free	96	1	1	Free	96	1	1	Free	96
Belize *	Yes	1	2	Free	86	2	2	Free	86	2	1	Free	87	2	1	Free	87
Benin *	No	2	2	Free	79	4	2	Partly	66	4	2	Partly	65	5	3	Partly	59
Bhutan *	Yes	3	4	Partly	59	3	4	Partly	59	2	4	Partly	61	3	4	Partly	61
Bolivia *	Yes	3	3	Partly	67	3	3	Partly	63	3	3	Partly	66	3	3	Partly	66
Bosnia and Herzegovina *	No	4	4	Partly	53	4	4	Partly	53	4	4	Partly	53	4	4	Partly	53
Botswana *	Yes	3	2	Free	72	3	2	Free	72	3	2	Free	72	3	2	Free	72
Brazil *	Yes	2	2	Free	75	2	2	Free	75	2	3	Free	74	2	3	Free	73
Brunei *	No	6	5	Not	29	6	5	Not	28	6	5	Not	28	6	5	Not	28
Bulgaria *	Yes	2	2	Free	80	2	2	Free	80	2	2	Free	78	2	2	Free	79
Burkina Faso *	Yes	4	3	Partly	60	4	4	Partly	56	4	4	Partly	54	4	4	Partly	53
Burundi *	No	7	6	Not	14	7	6	Not	13	7	6	Not	14	7	6	Not	14
Cambodia *	No	6	5	Not	26	7	5	Not	25	7	5	Not	24	7	5	Not	24
Cameroon *	No	6	6	Not	19	6	6	Not	18	6	6	Not	16	6	6	Not	15
Canada *	Yes	1	1	Free	99	1	1	Free	98	1	1	Free	98	1	1	Free	98
Cape Verde *	Yes	1	1	Free	90	1	1	Free	92	1	1	Free	92	1	1	Free	92
Central African Republic *	No	7	7	Not	9	7	7	Not	10	7	7	Not	9	7	7	Not	7
Chad *	No	7	6	Not	17	7	6	Not	17	7	6	Not	17	7	6	Not	15
Chile *	Yes	1	1	Free	94	1	2	Free	90	1	1	Free	93	1	1	Free	94
China *	No	7	6	Not	11	7	6	Not	10	7	6	Not	9	7	6	Not	9
Colombia *	Yes	3	3	Partly	66	3	3	Partly	66	3	3	Partly	65	3	3	Partly	64
Comoros *	No	4	4	Partly	50	4	4	Partly	44	5	4	Partly	42	5	4	Partly	42
DR Congo *	No	7	6	Not	15	7	6	Not	18	7	6	Not	20
Congo *	No	7	5	Not	21	7	5	Not	20	7	5	Not	20
Costa Rica *	Yes	1	1	Free	91	1	1	Free	91	1	1	Free	91
Croatia *	Yes	1	2	Free	85	1	2	Free	85	1	2	Free	85
Cuba *	No	7	6	Not	14	7	6	Not	14	7	6	Not	13
Cyprus *	Yes	1	1	Free	94	1	1	Free	94	1	1	Free	94
Czech Republic *	Yes	1	1	Free	91	1	1	Free	91	1	1	Free	91
Denmark *	Yes	1	1	Free	97	1	1	Free	97	1	1	Free	97
Djibouti *	No	6	5	Not	26	7	5	Not	24	7	5	Not	24
Dominica	Yes	1	1	Free	93	1	1	Free	93	1	1	Free	93
Dominican Republic *	Yes	3	3	Partly	67	3	3	Partly	67	3	3	Partly	67
East Timor *	Yes	2	3	Free	70	2	3	Free	71	2	3	Free	72
Ecuador *	Yes	3	3	Partly	63	3	3	Partly	65	3	3	Partly	67
Egypt *	No	6	6	Not	22	6	6	Not	21	6	6	Not	18
El Salvador *	Yes	2	3	Free	67	2	4	Partly	66	2	4	Partly	63
Equatorial Guinea *	No	7	7	Not	6	7	7	Not	6	7	7	Not	5
Eritrea *	No	7	7	Not	2	7	7	Not	2	7	7	Not	2
Estonia *	Yes	1	1	Free	94	1	1	Free	94	1	1	Free	94
Ethiopia *	No	6	6	Not	19	6	6	Not	24	6	6	Not	22
Eswatini *	No	7	6	Not	16	7	5	Not	19	7	5	Not	19
Fiji *	Yes	3	3	Partly	61	3	3	Partly	60	3	3	Partly	60
Finland *	Yes	1	1	Free	100	1	1	Free	100	1	1	Free	100
France *	Yes	1	2	Free	90	1	2	Free	90	1	2	Free	90
Gabon *	No	7	5	Not	23	7	5	Not	22	7	5	Not	22
Gambia	No	4	5	Partly	45	4	4	Partly	46	4	4	Partly	46
Georgia *	Yes	3	3	Partly	63	3	3	Partly	61	4	3	Partly	60
Germany *	Yes	1	1	Free	94	1	1	Free	94	1	1	Free	94
Ghana *	Yes	1	2	Free	83	2	2	Free	82	2	2	Free	82
Greece *	Yes	1	2	Free	87	1	2	Free	88	1	2	Free	87
Grenada *	Yes	1	2	Free	89	1	2	Free	89	1	2	Free	89
Guatemala *	No	4	4	Partly	53	4	4	Partly	52	4	4	Partly	52
Guinea *	No	5	4	Partly	43	5	5	Partly	40	5	5	Partly	38
Guinea-Bissau *	No	5	4	Partly	42	5	4	Partly	46	5	4	Partly	44
Guyana *	Yes	2	3	Free	75	2	3	Free	74	2	3	Free	73
Haiti *	No	5	5	Partly	41	5	5	Partly	38	5	5	Partly	37
Honduras *	No	4	4	Partly	46	4	4	Partly	45	4	5	Partly	44
Hungary *	Yes	3	3	Partly	70	3	3	Partly	70	3	3	Partly	69
Iceland *	Yes	1	1	Free	94	1	1	Free	94	1	1	Free	94
India *	Yes	2	3	Free	75	2	3	Free	71	2	4	Partly	67
Indonesia *	No	2	4	Partly	62	2	4	Partly	61	2	4	Partly	59
Iran *	No	6	6	Not	18	6	6	Not	17	6	6	Not	16
Iraq *	No	5	6	Not	32	5	6	Not	31	5	6	Not	29
Ireland *	Yes	1	1	Free	97	1	1	Free	97	1	1	Free	97
Israel *	Yes	2	3	Free	78	2	3	Free	76	2	3	Free	76
Italy *	Yes	1	1	Free	89	1	1	Free	89	1	1	Free	90
Ivory Coast *	No	4	4	Partly	51	4	4	Partly	51	5	4	Partly	44
Jamaica *	Yes	2	2	Free	78	2	2	Free	78	2	2	Free	80
Japan *	Yes	1	1	Free	96	1	1	Free	96	1	1	Free	96
Jordan *	No	5	5	Partly	37	5	5	Partly	37	6	5	Not	34
Kazakhstan *	No	7	5	Not		7	5	Not	23	7	5	Not	23
Kenya *	No	4	4	Partly	48	4	4	Partly	48	4	4	Partly	48
Kiribati *	Yes	1	1	Free	93	1	1	Free	93	1	1	Free	93
Kosovo *	Yes	3	4	Partly	54	3	4	Partly	56	4	4	Partly	54
Kuwait *	No	5	5	Partly	36	5	5	Partly	36	5	5	Partly	37
Kyrgyzstan *	No	5	4	Partly	38	5	4	Partly	39	7	5	Not	28
Laos *	No	7	6	Not	14	7	6	Not	14	7	6	Not	13
Latvia *	Yes	2	2	Free	87	1	2	Free	89	1	2	Free	89
Lebanon *	No	5	4	Partly	45	5	4	Partly	44	5	4	Partly	43
Lesotho *	Yes	3	3	Partly	63	3	3	Partly	63	3	3	Partly	63
Liberia *	Yes	3	3	Partly	62	3	4	Partly	60	3	4	Partly	60
Libya *	No	7	6	Not	9	7	6	Not	9	7	6	Not	9
Liechtenstein *	Yes	2	1	Free	90	2	1	Free	90	2	1	Free	90
Lithuania *	Yes	1	1	Free	91	1	1	Free	91	1	2	Free	90
Luxembourg	Yes	1	1	Free	98	1	1	Free	98	1	1	Free	97
Madagascar *	Yes	3	4	Partly	56	3	3	Partly	61	3	4	Partly	60
Malawi *	Yes	3	3	Partly	64	3	3	Partly	62	3	3	Partly	66
Malaysia *	No	4	4	Partly	52	4	4	Partly	52	4	4	Partly	51
Maldives *	No	5	5	Partly	35	4	5	Partly	40	4	5	Partly	40
Mali *	No	4	4	Partly	44	5	5	Partly	41	6	5	Not	33
Malta *	Yes	2	1	Free	91	2	1	Free	90	2	1	Free	90
Marshall Islands *	Yes	1	1	Free	93	1	1	Free	93	1	1	Free	93
Mauritania *	No	6	5	Not	32	5	5	Partly	34	5	5	Partly	35
Mauritius *	Yes	1	2	Free	89	1	2	Free	89	1	2	Free	87
Mexico *	Yes	3	3	Partly	63	3	3	Partly	62	3	4	Partly	61
Micronesia *	Yes	1	1	Free	92	1	1	Free	92	1	1	Free	92
Moldova *	Yes	3	4	Partly	58	3	4	Partly	60	3	3	Partly	61
Monaco *	Yes	3	1	Free	82	3	1	Free	83	3	1	Free	83
Mongolia *	Yes	1	2	Free	85	1	2	Free	84	1	2	Free	84
Montenegro	Yes	4	3	Partly	65	4	3	Partly	62	3	3	Partly	63
Morocco *	No	5	5	Partly	39	5	5	Partly	37	5	5	Partly	37
Mozambique *	No	4	4	Partly	51	5	4	Partly	45	5	4	Partly	43
Myanmar *	No	5	5	Partly	30	5	6	Not	30	5	6	Not	28
Namibia *	Yes	3	2	Free	75	2	2	Free	77	2	2	Free	77
Nauru *	Yes	2	2	Free	78	2	3	Free	77	2	3	Free	77
Nepal *	Yes	3	4	Partly	54	3	4	Partly	56	3	4	Partly	56
Netherlands *	Yes	1	1	Free	99	1	1	Free	99	1	1	Free	98
New Zealand *	Yes	1	1	Free	98	1	1	Free	97	1	1	Free	99
Nicaragua *	No	6	5	Not	32	6	5	Not	31	6	5	Not	30
Niger *	No	4	4	Partly	49	4	4	Partly	48	4	4	Partly	48
Nigeria *	No	3	5	Partly	50	4	5	Partly	47	4	5	Partly	45
North Korea *	No	7	7	Not	3	7	7	Not	3	7	7	Not	3
North Macedonia *	Yes	4	3	Partly	59	3	3	Partly	63	3	3	Partly	66
Norway *	Yes	1	1	Free	100	1	1	Free	100	1	1	Free	100
Oman *	No	6	5	Not	23	6	5	Not	23	6	5	Not	23
Pakistan *	No	5	5	Partly	39	5	5	Partly	38	5	5	Partly	37
Palau *	Yes	1	1	Free	92	1	1	Free	92	1	1	Free	92
Panama	Yes	1	2	Free	84	1	2	Free	84	2	2	Free	83
Papua New Guinea *	Yes	4	3	Partly	64	4	3	Partly	62	4	3	Partly	62
Paraguay *	Yes	3	3	Partly	65	3	3	Partly	65	3	3	Partly	65
Peru *	Yes	2	3	Free	73	2	3	Free	72	3	3	Partly	71
Philippines *	Yes	3	3	Partly	61	3	4	Partly	59	3	4	Partly	56
Poland *	Yes	2	2	Free	84	2	2	Free	84	2	2	Free	82
Portugal *	Yes	1	1	Free	96	1	1	Free	96	1	1	Free	96
Qatar *	No	6	5	Not	25	6	5	Not	25	6	5	Not	25
Romania *	Yes	2	2	Free	81	2	2	Free	83	2	2	Free	83
Russia *	No	7	6	Not	20	7	6	Not	20	7	6	Not	20
Rwanda *	No	6	6	Not	23	6	6	Not	22	6	6	Not	21
Saint Kitts and Nevis	Yes	1	1	Free	89	1	1	Free	89	2	1	Free	89
Saint Lucia	Yes	1	1	Free	92	1	1	Free	92	1	1	Free	91
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines *	Yes	1	1	Free	91	1	1	Free	91	1	1	Free	91
Samoa *	Yes	2	2	Free	81	2	2	Free	81	2	2	Free	81
San Marino	Yes	1	1	Free	95	1	1	Free	95	1	1	Free	93
São Tomé and Príncipe *	Yes	2	2	Free	83	2	2	Free	84	2	2	Free	84
Saudi Arabia *	No	7	7	Not	7	7	7	Not	7	7	7	Not	7
Senegal *	Yes	2	3	Free	72	3	3	Partly	71	3	3	Partly	71
Serbia *	Yes	3	3	Partly	67	4	3	Partly	66	4	3	Partly	64
Seychelles	Yes	3	3	Partly	71	3	3	Partly	72	2	3	Free	77
Sierra Leone *	Yes	3	3	Partly	65	3	3	Partly	65	3	3	Partly	65
Singapore *	No	4	4	Partly	51	4	4	Partly	50	4	4	Partly	48
Slovakia *	Yes	1	2	Free	88	1	2	Free	88	1	1	Free	90
Slovenia	Yes	1	1	Free	94	1	1	Free	94	1	1	Free	95
Solomon Islands *	Yes	2	2	Free	79	2	2	Free	79	2	2	Free	79
Somalia *	No	7	7	Not	7	7	7	Not	7	7	7	Not	7
South Africa *	Yes	2	2	Free	79	2	2	Free	79	2	2	Free	79
South Korea *	Yes	2	2	Free	83	2	2	Free	83	2	2	Free	83
South Sudan *	No	7	7	Not	2	7	7	Not	2	7	7	Not	2
Spain *	Yes	1	1	Free	94	1	1	Free	92	1	1	Free	90
Sri Lanka *	Yes	3	4	Partly	56	4	4	Partly	56	4	4	Partly	56
Sudan *	No	7	7	Not	7	7	6	Not	12	7	6	Not	17
Suriname *	Yes	2	3	Free	77	2	3	Free	75	2	2	Free	79
Sweden *	Yes	1	1	Free	100	1	1	Free	100	1	1	Free	100
Switzerland *	Yes	1	1	Free	96	1	1	Free	96	1	1	Free	96
Syria *	No	7	7	Not	0	7	7	Not	0	7	7	Not	1	7	7	Not	1	7	7	Not	1
Tajikistan *	No	7	6	Not	9	7	6	Not	9	7	6	Not	8	7	6	Not	8	7	6	Not	7
Tanzania *	No	4	5	Partly	45	5	5	Partly	40	5	5	Partly	34	5	5	Partly	34	5	5	Partly	36
Thailand *	No	7	5	Not	30	6	4	Partly	32	7	5	Not	30	7	5	Not	29	6	5	Not	30
Togo *	No	5	4	Partly	43	5	4	Partly	44	5	4	Partly	43	5	4	Partly	42	5	4	Partly	42
Tonga *	Yes	2	2	Free	79	2	2	Free	79	2	2	Free	79	2	2	Free	79	2	2	Free	81
Trinidad and Tobago *	Yes	2	2	Free	82	2	2	Free	82	2	2	Free	82
Tunisia *	Yes	2	3	Free	69	2	3	Free	70	2	3	Free	71
Turkey *	No	5	6	Not	31	5	6	Not	32	5	6	Not	32
Turkmenistan *	No	7	7	Not	2	7	7	Not	2	7	7	Not	2
Tuvalu *	Yes	1	1	Free	93	1	1	Free	93	1	1	Free	93
Uganda *	No	6	5	Not	36	6	5	Not	34	6	5	Not	34
Ukraine *	No	3	4	Partly	60	3	3	Partly	62	3	4	Partly	60
United Arab Emirates *	No	7	6	Not	17	7	6	Not	17	7	6	Not	17
United Kingdom *	Yes	1	1	Free	93	1	1	Free	94	1	1	Free	93
United States *	Yes	2	1	Free	86	2	1	Free	86	2	2	Free	83
Uruguay *	Yes	1	1	Free		1	1	Free	98	1	1	Free	98
Uzbekistan *	No	7	6	Not		7	6	Not	10	7	6	Not	11
Vanuatu *	Yes	2	2	Free	82	2	2	Free	82	2	2	Free	82
Venezuela *	No	7	6	Not	19	7	6	Not	16	7	6	Not	14
Vietnam *	No	7	5	Not	20	7	5	Not	20	7	6	Not	19
Yemen *	No	7	6	Not	11	7	6	Not	11	7	6	Not	11
Zambia *	No	4	4	Partly	54	4	4	Partly	54	4	4	Partly	52
Zimbabwe *	No	5	5	Partly	31	5	5	Partly	29	6	5	Not	28

Territories and countries with limited recognition

Country	2014			2015			2016			2017			2018			2020				2021
	PR	CL	Free	PR	CL	Free	PR	CL	Free	PR	CL	Free	PR	CL	Free	PR	CL	Free	Pts	PR	CL	Free	Pts
Abkhazia *	4	5	Partly	4	5	Partly	4	5	Partly	4	5	Partly	4	5	Partly	17	23	Partly	40	17	23	Partly	40
Crimea (disputed)	4	3	Partly	7	6	Not	7	6	Not	7	6	Not	7	6	Not	-2	10	Not	8	-2	9	Not	7
Donetsk PR and Luhansk PR (disputed)																-1	6	Not	5	-1	5	Not	4
Gaza Strip (Palestine)	7	6	Not	7	6	Not	7	6	Not	7	6	Not	7	6	Not	3	8	Not	11	3	8	Not	11
Hong Kong * (China)	5	2	Partly	5	2	Partly	5	2	Partly	5	2	Partly	5	2	Partly	16	39	Partly	55	15	37	Partly	52
Indian Kashmir (India)	4	4	Partly	4	4	Partly	4	4	Partly	4	4	Partly	4	4	Partly	8	20	Not	28	7	20	Not	27
Azad Kashmir (Pakistan)	6	5	Not	6	5	Not	6	5	Not	6	5	Not	6	5	Not	9	19	Not	28	9	19	Not	28
Northern Cyprus *	2	2	Free	2	2	Free	2	2	Free	2	2	Free	2	2	Free	31	50	Free	81	28	50	Free	78
Puerto Rico (United States)*	1	2	Free	1	2	Free	1	1	Free
Somaliland *	4	5	Partly	4	5	Partly	5	5	Partly	5	5	Partly	4	5	Partly	17	24	Partly	41	18	24	Partly	42
South Ossetia *	7	6	Not	7	6	Not	7	6	Not	7	6	Not	7	6	Not	2	8	Not	10	2	8	Not	10
Taiwan *																1	1	Free	93	1	1	Free	94
Tibet (China)	7	7	Not	7	7	Not	7	7	Not	7	7	Not	7	7	Not	-2	3	Not	1	-2	3	Not	1
Transnistria *	6	6	Not	6	6	Not	6	6	Not	6	6	Not	6	6	Not	9	13	Not	22	8	12	Not	20
West Bank (Palestine)	6	5	Not	6	5	Not	6	5	Not	7	5	Not	7	5	Not	4	21	Not	25	4	21	Not	25
Western Sahara *	7	7	Not	7	7	Not	7	7	Not	7	7	Not	7	7	Not	-3	7	Not	4	-3	7	Not	4

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

•  Åland (1992–2000)
•  American Samoa
•  Anguilla
•  Aruba (1988–2000)
•  Azores
•  Bermuda
•  British Virgin Islands
•  Canary Islands
•  Cayman Islands
•  Ceuta
•  Christmas Island
•  Cocos (Keeling) Islands
•  Cook Islands
•  Czechoslovakia (1972–1993)
•  Easter Island
•  Falkland Islands
•  Faroe Islands
• French Guiana
•  French Polynesia
•  West Germany (1972–1990)
•  Gibraltar
•  Greenland
• Guadeloupe
•  Guam
•  Guernsey
•  Isle of Man
•  Jersey
•  Madeira
• Martinique
• Mayotte
•  Melilla
•  Montserrat
•  Netherlands Antilles
• New Caledonia
•  Niue
•  Norfolk Island
• Northern Ireland (1991–2004)
•  Northern Mariana Islands
•  Pitcairn Islands
•  Puerto Rico (1977–2016)
• Réunion
• Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha
• Saint Martin
• Saint Pierre and Miquelon
•  Serbia and Montenegro (1992–2006)
• Svalbard (1992–2000)
•  Tokelau
•  Turks and Caicos Islands
•  United States Virgin Islands
• Wallis and Futuna

Partly Free

•  Republic of Artsakh (1991–2023)
•  Kurdistan Region (1992–2004)
•  Macau (1977–2004)
•  Panama Canal Zone (1977–1979)
•  Vatican City (1984–1988)
• West Papua (1990–2003)
•  South Vietnam (1972–1976)
•  North Yemen (1972–1990)
• Yugoslavia (1972–1992)

Not Free

•  Bophuthatswana (1977–1994)
•  Chechnya (1998–2009)
•  Ciskei (1981–1994)
•  East Germany (1972–1990)
•  Juan Fernández Islands (1977–1978)
• Occupied Territories (1977–2010)
• Palestinian Territories (1997–2010)
•  Transkei (1988–1994)
•  Venda (1979–1994)
•  Soviet Union (1972–1990)
•  North Vietnam (1972–1976)
• Vojvodina (1992–1995)
•  South Yemen (1972–1990)

Trends

Percentage of countries in each category, from the 1973 through 2021 reports:

1973–2021   Not Free   Partly Free   Free   Electoral Democracies

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.

Evaluation

There is some debate over the neutrality of Freedom House and the methodology used for the Freedom in the World report, which has been written by Raymond Gastil and his colleagues. The neutrality and biases of human-rights indices have been discussed in several publications by Kenneth A. Bollen. Bollen wrote that "Considered together these criticisms suggest that some nations may have been incorrectly rated on Gastil's measures. However, none of the criticisms have demonstrated a systematic bias in all the ratings. Most of the evidence consists of anecdotal evidence of relatively few cases. Whether there is a systematic or sporadic slant in Gastil's ratings is an open question" (Bollen, 1986, p. 586). The freedom index of Freedom in the World has a very strong and positive (at least an 80%) correlation with three other democracy-indices studied in Mainwaring (2001, p. 53).

Ideological bias or neutrality

In his 1986 study, Bollen discussed reviews of measurements of human rights, including the index reported in Freedom in the World (Bollen, 1986, p. 585). Criticisms of Freedom in the World during the 1980s were discussed by Gastil (1990), who stated that "generally such criticism is based on opinions about Freedom House rather than detailed examination of survey ratings", a conclusion disputed by Giannone. The definition of Freedom in Gastil (1982) and Freedom House (1990) emphasized liberties rather than the exercise of freedom, according to Adam Przeworski, who gave the following example: In the United States, citizens are free to form political parties and to vote, yet even in presidential elections only half of U.S. "citizens" vote; in the U.S., "the same two parties speak in a commercially sponsored unison", wrote Przeworski (2003, p. 277).

More recent charges of ideological bias prompted Freedom House to issue this 2010 statement:

Freedom House does not maintain a culture-bound view of freedom. The methodology of the survey is grounded in basic standards of political rights and civil liberties, derived in large measure from relevant portions of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. These standards apply to all countries and territories, irrespective of geographical location, ethnic or religious composition, or level of economic development.

Mainwaring et alia (2001, p. 52) wrote that Freedom House's index had "two systematic biases: scores for leftist were tainted by political considerations, and changes in scores are sometimes driven by changes in their criteria rather than changes in real conditions." Nonetheless, when evaluated in Latin American countries yearly, Freedom House's index was very strongly and positively correlated with the index of Adam Przeworski and with the index of the authors themselves: They evaluated Pearson's coefficient of linear correlation between their index and Freedom House's index, which was 0.82; among these indices and the two others studied, the correlations were all between 0.80 and 0.86 (Mainwaring et alia, 2001, p. 53).

As previously quoted, Bollen criticized previous studies of Freedom in the World as anecdotal and inconclusive; they raised issues needing further study by scientific methods rather than anecdotes. Bollen studied the question of ideological bias using multivariate statistics. Using their factor-analytic model for human-rights measurements, Bollen and Paxton estimate that Gastil's method produces a bias of -0.38 standard deviations (s.d.) against Marxist–Leninist countries and a larger bias, +0.5 s.d., favoring Christian countries; similar results held for the methodology of Sussman (Bollen and Paxton, 2000, p. 585). In contrast, another method by a critic of Freedom in the World produced a bias for Leftist countries during the 1980s of at least +0.8 s.d., a bias that is "consistent with the general finding that political scientists are more favorable to leftist politics than is the general population" (Bollen and Paxton, p. 585).

Coder bias

Political scientists Andrew T. Little and Anne Meng argued that the data produced by Freedom House and the Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) project relies heavily on subjective, as opposed to objective, measures and thus are tainted by coder bias.

Use and conceptual analysis

Criticisms of the reception and uses of the Freedom in the World report have been noted by Diego Giannone:

• "Conceptual stretching", Giovanni Sartori's critical term for a methodological shortcoming common in social studies. Giannone reports as an example that, according to Landman and Hausermann (2003), "the index by FH has been used as a tool for measuring democracy, good governance, and human rights, thus producing a conceptual stretching which is a major cause of 'losses in connotative precision': in short, an instrument used to measure everything, in the end, is not able to discriminate against anything."
• Issues with aggregation. Giannone quotes Scoble and Wiseberg's conclusion (1981) that "the sum of a civil liberty score of 4 and a political liberty score of 2 is the same as the sum of a civil liberty score of 2 and a political liberty score of 4 even though the substantive interpretation of these different combinations is different."
• "Lack of specificity and rigorousness in construction" and "inadequate level of transparency and replicability of the scales", the first referencing to Scoble et alie (1981) and the latter to Hadenius and Teorell (2005). In support of the latter, he also quotes the conclusion of Munck and Verkuilen (2002) that "the aggregate data offered by Freedom House has to be accepted largely on faith", due to the factors that "no set of coding rules is provided, and the sources of information are not identified with enough precision, and because disaggregated data have not been made available to independent scholars".

Time series

In "Political and ideological aspects in the measurement of democracy: the Freedom House case" (2010) which reviewed changes to the methodology since 1990, Diego Giannone concluded that "because of the changes in methodology over time and the strict interconnection between methodological and political aspects, the FH data do not offer an unbroken and politically neutral time series, such that they should not be used for cross-time analyses even for the development of first hypotheses. The internal consistency of the data series is open to question."

On this topic, the Freedom House website replies that they have "made a number of modest methodological changes to adapt to evolving ideas about political rights and civil liberties. At the same time, the time series data are not revised retroactively, and any changes to the methodology are introduced incrementally in order to ensure the comparability of the ratings from year to year."

See also

• Democracy in the Middle East
• Democracy Index
• Freedom of the Press report
• Freedom in the World by region
• Index of Freedom in the World
• List of indices of freedom
• Polity data series

Notes

1. Gorokhovskaia, Yana; Shahbaz, Adrian; Slipowitz, Amy (9 March 2023). "Marking 50 Years in the Struggle for Democracy". Freedom House. Retrieved 9 March 2023.
2. William Ide (11 January 2000). "Freedom House Report: Asia Sees Some Significant Progress". Voice of America. Archived from the original on 4 December 2013. Retrieved October 13, 2012.
3. ^ Bollen, K.A., "Political Rights and Political Liberties in Nations: An Evaluation of Human Rights Measures, 1950 to 1984", Human Rights Quarterly, vol. 8, no. 4 (November 1986), pp.567–591. Also in: Jabine, T.B. and Pierre Claude, R. (Eds.), Human Rights and Statistics, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1992, pp. 188–215, ISBN 0-8122-3108-2.
4. “Correlation Versus Interchangeability: the Limited Robustness of Empirical Finding on Democracy Using Highly Correlated Data Sets" Archived 20 October 2017 at the Wayback Machine, Gretchen Casper and Claudiu Tufis, Political Analysis, 11:2 (2003), pp. 196–203, Society for Political Methodology
5. ^ Przeworski, Adam (2003). "Freedom to choose and democracy". Economics and Philosophy. 19 (2): 265–279. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.570.736. doi:10.1017/S0266267103001159. S2CID 38812895.
6. List of Electoral Democracies FIW23 (.XLSX), by Freedom House
7. "Freedom in the World 2019" (PDF). Freedom House. 5 February 2019. Retrieved 5 February 2019.
8. "Freedom in the World 2020" (PDF). Freedom House. 4 March 2020. Retrieved 4 March 2020.
9. "Freedom in the World 2021" (PDF). Freedom House. 3 March 2021. Retrieved 3 March 2021.
10. ^ "Freedom in the World 2010: Methodology" Archived 23 December 2011 at the Wayback Machine, Freedom in the World 2010, Freedom house
11. "Methodology: Freedom in the World 2018". freedomhouse.org. 13 January 2018. Archived from the original on 24 February 2020. Retrieved 17 January 2018.
12. ^ Country and Territory Ratings and Statuses, 1973-2024 (Excel Download), Freedom In the World, Country and Territory Ratings and Statuses, 1973-2024 (Excel Download), Freedom House.
13. "Countries and Territories". Freedom House. Retrieved 5 March 2021.
14. Puerto Rico *. Retrieved from https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world/2016/puerto-rico Archived 18 July 2019 at the Wayback Machine
15. Status %26 Ratings Overview, 1973-2016.pdf "Country Status and ratings overview", Freedom In the World 1973–2016, Freedom House. Retrieved 2 August 2016.
16. Democracy Numbers, FIW 1989-2016.pdf "Number and percentages of electoral democracies", Freedom In the World 1973–2016, Freedom House. Retrieved 2 August 2016.
17. Freedom In the World 2018, Freedom House.
18. Bollen has held chairs as a Distinguished Professor of Sociology and the Director of the Howard W. Odum Institute for Research in Social Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-CH). Also serving as an Adjunct Professor of Statistics at UNC-CH, Bollen wrote the leading graduate textbook in structural equation models (SEM), often called LISREL models; SEM modeling allows the summary of a large number of measurements using a small number of meaningful factors. SEM was used by Bollen in the studies reported hereafter.
19. ^ Mainwaring, S.; Brinks, D.; Pérez-Liñán, A.B. (2001). "Classifying Political Regimes in Latin". Studies in Comparative International Development. 36 (1): 37–65. doi:10.1007/BF02687584. S2CID 155047996.
20. Gastil, R.D. (1990). "The Comparative Survey of Freedom: Experiences and Suggestions". Studies in Comparative International Development. 25 (1): 25–50. doi:10.1007/BF02716904. S2CID 144099626.
21. ^ Bollen, Kenneth A. and Paxton, Pamela, "Subjective Measures of Liberal Democracy", Comparative Political Studies, vol. 33, no. 1 (February 2000), pp. 58–86
22. Andrew Little and Anne Meng,“Measuring Democratic Backsliding.“ PS: Political Science & Politics (forthcoming). https://osf.io/n32zk/
23. Giannone, Diego, "Political and ideological aspects in the measurement of democracy: the Freedom House case", Democratization, vol. 17, no. 1 (February 2010), pp. 68–97.
24. "Concept Misformation in Comparative Politics." The American Political Science Review 64 (4): 1033–1053.
25. Giannone (2010), p. 69. Quoting Landman, Tod, and Julia Hausermann, indicators/GovIndicatorsEssex2003.pdf Map-Making and Analysis of the Main International Initiatives on Developing Indicators on Democracy and Good Governance , Final Report, University of Essex – Human Rights Centre, July 2003, 98 pp.
26. Scoble, Harry and Laurie Wiseberg, Ved Nanda, Ved, James Scarritt, and George Shepherd (eds) (1981), "Problems of Comparative Research in Human Rights", Global Human Rights: Public Policies, Comparative Measures and NGO Strategies, pp. 147–171, Westview Press, Boulder, CO, ISBN 978-0-89158-858-0. Cited in Giannone (2010), p. 69.
27. ^ Giannone (2010), p. 69, citing Scoble, et al. (1981) and Axel Hadenius and Jan Teorell. "Assessing Alternative Indices of Democracy", Political Concepts, Committee on Concepts and Methods, Working Paper Series, August 2005, 47 pp.
28. Munck, Gerardo L. and Verkuilen, Jay, CPS 2002.pdf "Conceptualising and Measuring Democracy: Evaluating Alternative Indices" , Comparative Political Studies, vol. 35, no. 1 (February 2002), pp. 5–34. Cited in Giannone (2010), p. 69.
29. Giannone (2010), p. 68.

References

• Bollen, Kenneth A. (1991), Inkeles, Alex (ed.), "On measuring democracy: Its consequences and concomitants (Chapter 1, Political democracy: Conceptual and measurement traps)", Proceedings of the Conference on Measuring Democracy, 27–28 May 1988, Hoover Institution, Stanford University (second printing, 1993 ed.), New Brunswick, New Jersey: Transactions Publishers, pp. 3–20, ISBN 978-0-88738-881-1
• Bollen, Kenneth; Paxton, Pamela; Morishima, Rumi (June 2005). "Assessing international evaluations: An example from USAID's Democracy and Governance Programs" (PDF). American Journal of Evaluation. 26 (2): 189–203. doi:10.1177/1098214005275640. S2CID 146522432. Evaluation performed on behalf of the Social Science Research Council (SSRC), at the request of and with funding from the Strategic and Operational Research Agenda (SORA) of USAID (Office of Democracy and Governance in the Bureau for Democracy, Conflict, and Humanitarian Assistance), according to the National Research Council (2008, p. 28).
• Gastil, Raymond Duncan (1991), Inkeles, Alex (ed.), "On measuring democracy: Its consequences and concomitants (Chapter 2, The comparative survey of freedom: Experiences and suggestions)", Proceedings of the Conference on Measuring Democracy, 27–28 May 1988, Hoover Institution, Stanford University (second printing, 1993 ed.), New Brunswick, New Jersey, U.S.A.: Transactions Publishers, pp. 21–46, ISBN 978-0-88738-881-1
• Inkeles, Alex, ed. (1991), "On measuring democracy: Its consequences and concomitants (Part I: Measuring democratic political systems)", Proceedings of the Conference on Measuring Democracy, 27–28 May 1988, Hoover Institution, Stanford University (second printing, 1993 ed.), New Brunswick, New Jersey: Transactions Publishers, pp. 1–121, ISBN 978-0-88738-881-1
• National Research Council, Committee on Evaluation of USAID Democracy Assistance Programs (2008). Goldstone, Jack A (ed.). Improving democracy assistance: Building knowledge through evaluations and research. National Academies Press. pp. xvi+336. ISBN 978-0-309-11736-4. Individuals can download the complete report (pdf format) for private use.

External links

• Freedom in the World 2023 - online at Freedom House
• Freedom in the World 2022 - online at Freedom House
• Freedom in the World 2021 - online at Freedom House
• Freedom in the World 2020 - online at Freedom House
• Freedom in the World 2019 - online at Freedom House
• Freedom in the World 2018 - online at Freedom House
• Freedom in the World 2017 - online at Freedom House
• Freedom in the World 2016 - online at Freedom House
• Freedom in the World 2015 - online at Freedom House
• Freedom in the World 2014 - online at Freedom House
• Freedom in the World 2013 - online at Freedom House

• Human rights
• International rankings