List of freedom indices

This article contains a list of freedom indices produced by several non-governmental organizations that publish and maintain assessments of the state of freedom in the world, according to their own various definitions of the term, and rank countries as being free, partly free, or using various measures of freedom, including civil liberties, political rights and economic rights.

Prominent indices

The indices and their origins.

• Canada
  • The Economic Freedom of the World Index is a report published by Canada-based Fraser Institute in conjunction with the Economic Freedom Network, a group of independent research and educational institutes in 90 nations and territories worldwide. It is a numeric index, and its results are not currently included in the table below.
• Canada, United States, Germany
  • The Human Freedom Index presents the state of human freedom in the world based on a broad measure that encompasses personal, civil, and economic freedom.[1] The index presents a broad measure of human freedom, understood as the absence of coercive constraint. It uses 79 distinct indicators of personal and economic freedom. The index covers the following areas: Rule of Law, Security and Safety, Movement, Religion, Association, Assembly, Civil Society, Expression, Relationships, Size of Government, Legal System and Property Rights, Access to Sound Money, Freedom to Trade Internationally, and Regulation of Credit, Labor, and Business. The Human Freedom Index was created in 2015, covering 152 countries for years 2008–2012. The Human Freedom Index 2016 was published in November 2016, covering 159 countries for years 2008–2015. The report is co-published by the Cato Institute, the Fraser Institute, and the Liberales Institut at the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom. Co-authors of the report are Ian Vásquez and Tanja Porčnik.
  • The Index of Freedom in the World was a predecessor to the Human Freedom Index. It measured classical civil liberties and was published in 2013 by Canada's Fraser Institute, Germany's Liberales Institute, and the U.S. Cato Institute.[2] It is not currently included in the table below.
• France
  • Worldwide Press Freedom Index, is published each year since 2002 (except that 2011 was combined with 2012) by France-based Reporters Without Borders. Countries are assessed as having a good situation, a satisfactory situation, noticeable problems, a difficult situation, or a very serious situation.[3]
• Spain
  • The World Index of Moral Freedom was first published on 2 April 2016, by the Foundation for the Advancement of Liberty, based in Madrid, Spain. This index ranks 160 countries by five categories of indicators: religious freedom, bioethical freedom, drugs freedom, sexuality freedom and family and gender freedom. The index aims at establishing the degree of individual freedom or state control on decisions pertaining to the great moral debates of our time.[4]
• Sweden
  • MaxRange, developed by Max Rånge, and maintained by Mikael Sandberg and Max Rånge, political scientists at Halmstad University, Sweden, is a data set defining a country's level of democracy and institutional structure (regime-type) on a 1000-point graded scale. Values are sorted based on level of democracy and political accountability. MaxRange defines the value corresponding to all states every month from 1789 to the present.[5]
  • Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) Institute, the V-Dem Institute, the Department of Political Science at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, is an approach to conceptualizing and measuring democracy. They provide a multidimensional and disaggregated dataset that reflects the complexity of the concept of democracy as a system of rule that goes beyond the simple presence of elections. The V-Dem project distinguishes between five high-level principles of democracy: electoral, liberal, participatory, deliberative, and egalitarian, and collects data to measure these principles. With six Principal Investigators (PIs), seventeen Project Managers (PMs) with special responsibility for issue areas, more than thirty Regional Managers (RMs), 170 Country Coordinators (CCs), Research Assistants, and 3,000 Country Experts (CEs), the V-Dem project is one of the largest social science data collection projects focusing on research.[6]

• UK
  • The Democracy Index, published by the UK-based Economist Intelligence Unit, is an assessment of countries' democracy. Countries are rated to be either full democracies, flawed democracies, hybrid regimes, or authoritarian regimes. The index is based on 60 indicators grouped in five different categories measuring pluralism, civil liberties, and political culture.[7]
• US
  • The CIRI Human Rights Data Project measures a range of human, civil, women's, and workers' rights.[8] It was created in 1994 and is now hosted by the University of Connecticut.[9] In its 2011 report, the U.S. was ranked 38th in overall human rights.[10]
  • Freedom in the World, published each year since 1972 by the U.S.-based Freedom House, ranks countries by political rights and civil liberties that are derived in large measure from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Countries are assessed as free, partly free, or unfree.[11]
  • Freedom of the Press is a report published each year since 1980 by Freedom House.
  • The Index of Economic Freedom is an annual report published by The Wall Street Journal and the U.S.-based Heritage Foundation. Countries are assessed as free, mostly free, moderately free, mostly unfree, and repressed.[12]
  • The U.S.-based Polity data series is a widely used data series in political science research. It contains coded annual information on regime authority characteristics and transitions for all independent states with total populations greater than 500,000 and covers the years 1800–2018. Polity's conclusions about a state's level of democracy are based on an evaluation of that state's elections for competitiveness, openness, and level of participation. Data from this series is not currently included in the table below. The Polity work is sponsored by the Political Instability Task Force (PITF) which is funded by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency; however, the views expressed in the reports are the authors' alone and do not represent the views of the U.S. Government.[13]

Annual assessments

Here is a table of the assessments by four indices, for most countries of the world. For exact rankings rather than assessments, refer to the individual index articles.

• 
  Country ratings from Freedom House's Freedom in the World 2018 survey, concerning the state of world freedom in 2017[14]
• 
  2018 Index of Economic Freedom.[12]
  Source: Heritage Foundation and the Wall Street Journal
• 
  The global situation of press freedom in 2020 according to Reporters Without Borders
• 
  The Democracy Index map in 2017 according to The Economist Intelligence Unit

Index	Scale
Freedom in the World[11]	free																				partly free																				not free
Index of Economic Freedom[12]	free												mostly free												moderately free												mostly unfree												repressed
Press Freedom Index[3]	good situation												satisfactory situation												noticeable problems												difficult situation												very serious situation
Democracy Index [15]	full democracy												flawed democracy												hybrid regime												authoritarian regime												authoritarian regime

List by country

Country	Freedom in the World 2020[11]	2020 Index of Economic Freedom[12]	2020 Press Freedom Index[3]	2019 Democracy Index[15]
Afghanistan	not free	mostly unfree	difficult situation	authoritarian regime
Albania	partly free	moderately free	noticeable problems	hybrid regime
Algeria	not free	repressed	difficult situation	hybrid regime
Andorra	free	n/a	satisfactory situation	n/a
Angola	not free	mostly unfree	noticeable problems	authoritarian regime
Antigua and Barbuda	free	n/a	satisfactory situation	n/a
Argentina	free	mostly unfree	noticeable problems	flawed democracy
Armenia	partly free	mostly free	noticeable problems	hybrid regime
Australia	free	free	satisfactory situation	full democracy
Austria	free	mostly free	satisfactory situation	full democracy
Azerbaijan	not free	moderately free	very serious situation	authoritarian regime
Bahamas	free	moderately free	n/a	n/a
Bahrain	not free	moderately free	very serious situation	authoritarian regime
Bangladesh	partly free	mostly unfree	difficult situation	hybrid regime
Barbados	free	moderately free	n/a	n/a
Belarus	not free	moderately free	difficult situation	authoritarian regime
Belgium	free	moderately free	good situation	flawed democracy
Belize	free	mostly unfree	noticeable problems	n/a
Benin	partly free	mostly unfree	difficult situation	hybrid regime
Bhutan	partly free	moderately free	noticeable problems	hybrid regime
Bolivia	partly free	repressed	difficult situation	hybrid regime
Bosnia and Herzegovina	partly free	moderately free	noticeable problems	hybrid regime
Botswana	free	moderately free	satisfactory situation	flawed democracy
Brazil	free	mostly unfree	noticeable problems	flawed democracy
Brunei	not free	moderately free	difficult situation	n/a
Bulgaria	free	mostly free	difficult situation	flawed democracy
Burkina Faso	partly free	mostly unfree	satisfactory situation	hybrid regime
Burma	not free	mostly unfree	difficult situation	authoritarian regime
Burundi	not free	repressed	very serious situation	authoritarian regime
Cambodia	not free	mostly unfree	difficult situation	authoritarian regime
Cameroon	not free	mostly unfree	difficult situation	authoritarian regime
Canada	free	mostly free	satisfactory situation	full democracy
Cape Verde	free	moderately free	satisfactory situation	flawed democracy
Central African Republic	not free	mostly unfree	difficult situation	authoritarian regime
Chad	not free	mostly unfree	difficult situation	authoritarian regime
Chile	free	mostly free	noticeable problems	full democracy
China	not free	mostly unfree	very serious situation	authoritarian regime
Colombia	partly free	moderately free	difficult situation	flawed democracy
Comoros	partly free	mostly unfree	noticeable problems	authoritarian regime
Costa Rica	free	moderately free	good situation	full democracy
Congo, Democratic Republic of the	not free	repressed	difficult situation	authoritarian regime
Congo, Republic of the	not free	repressed	difficult situation	authoritarian regime
Croatia	free	moderately free	noticeable problems	flawed democracy
Cuba	not free	repressed	very serious situation	authoritarian regime
Cyprus	free	mostly free	satisfactory situation	flawed democracy
Czech Republic	free	mostly free	satisfactory situation	flawed democracy
Denmark	free	mostly free	good situation	full democracy
Djibouti	not free	mostly unfree	very serious situation	authoritarian regime
Dominica	free	moderately free	satisfactory situation	n/a
Dominican Republic	partly free	moderately free	noticeable problems	flawed democracy
East Timor	free	repressed	noticeable problems	flawed democracy
Ecuador	partly free	mostly unfree	noticeable problems	flawed democracy
Egypt	not free	mostly unfree	very serious situation	authoritarian regime
El Salvador	partly free	moderately free	noticeable problems	flawed democracy
Equatorial Guinea	not free	repressed	very serious situation	authoritarian regime
Eritrea	not free	repressed	very serious situation	authoritarian regime
Estonia	free	mostly free	good situation	flawed democracy
Eswatini	not free	mostly unfree	difficult situation	authoritarian regime
Ethiopia	not free	mostly unfree	noticeable problems	authoritarian regime
Fiji	partly free	moderately free	noticeable problems	hybrid regime
Finland	free	mostly free	good situation	full democracy
France	free	moderately free	satisfactory situation	full democracy
Gabon	not free	mostly unfree	difficult situation	authoritarian regime
Gambia	partly free	mostly unfree	noticeable problems	hybrid regime
Georgia	partly free	mostly free	noticeable problems	hybrid regime
Germany	free	mostly free	good situation	full democracy
Ghana	free	mostly unfree	satisfactory situation	flawed democracy
Greece	free	mostly unfree	noticeable problems	flawed democracy
Grenada	free	n/a	satisfactory situation	n/a
Guatemala	partly free	moderately free	difficult situation	hybrid regime
Guinea	partly free	mostly unfree	noticeable problems	authoritarian regime
Guinea-Bissau	partly free	mostly unfree	noticeable problems	authoritarian regime
Guyana	free	mostly unfree	noticeable problems	flawed democracy
Haiti	partly free	mostly unfree	noticeable problems	hybrid regime
Honduras	partly free	moderately free	difficult situation	hybrid regime
Hong Kong	partly free	free	noticeable problems	flawed democracy
Hungary	partly free	moderately free	noticeable problems	flawed democracy
Iceland	free	mostly free	satisfactory situation	full democracy
India	free	mostly unfree	difficult situation	flawed democracy
Indonesia	partly free	moderately free	difficult situation	flawed democracy
Iran	not free	repressed	very serious situation	authoritarian regime
Iraq	not free	n/a	very serious situation	authoritarian regime
Ireland	free	free	good situation	full democracy
Israel	free	mostly free	noticeable problems	flawed democracy
Italy	free	moderately free	satisfactory situation	flawed democracy
Ivory Coast	partly free	mostly unfree	noticeable problems	hybrid regime
Jamaica	free	moderately free	good situation	flawed democracy
Japan	free	mostly free	noticeable problems	flawed democracy
Jordan	partly free	moderately free	difficult situation	authoritarian regime
Kazakhstan	not free	moderately free	difficult situation	authoritarian regime
Kenya	partly free	mostly unfree	noticeable problems	hybrid regime
Kiribati	free	repressed	n/a	n/a
Korea, North	not free	repressed	very serious situation	authoritarian regime
Korea, South	free	mostly free	satisfactory situation	flawed democracy
Kosovo	partly free	moderately free	noticeable problems	n/a
Kuwait	partly free	moderately free	noticeable problems	authoritarian regime
Kyrgyzstan	partly free	moderately free	noticeable problems	hybrid regime
Laos	not free	mostly unfree	very serious situation	authoritarian regime
Latvia	free	mostly free	satisfactory situation	flawed democracy
Lebanon	partly free	mostly unfree	noticeable problems	hybrid regime
Lesotho	partly free	mostly unfree	noticeable problems	flawed democracy
Liberia	partly free	repressed	noticeable problems	hybrid regime
Libya	not free	n/a	very serious situation	authoritarian regime
Liechtenstein	free	n/a	satisfactory situation	n/a
Lithuania	free	mostly free	satisfactory situation	flawed democracy
Luxembourg	free	mostly free	satisfactory situation	full democracy
Macau	n/a	mostly free	n/a	n/a
Madagascar	partly free	moderately free	noticeable problems	hybrid regime
Malawi	partly free	mostly unfree	noticeable problems	hybrid regime
Malaysia	partly free	mostly free	noticeable problems	flawed democracy
Maldives	partly free	mostly unfree	noticeable problems	n/a
Mali	partly free	mostly unfree	noticeable problems	hybrid regime
Malta	free	moderately free	noticeable problems	flawed democracy
Marshall Islands	free	n/a	n/a	n/a
Mauritania	partly free	mostly unfree	noticeable problems	authoritarian regime
Mauritius	free	mostly free	noticeable problems	full democracy
Mexico	partly free	moderately free	difficult situation	flawed democracy
Micronesia, Federated States of	free	mostly unfree	n/a	n/a
Moldova	partly free	moderately free	noticeable problems	hybrid regime
Monaco	free	n/a	n/a	n/a
Mongolia	free	mostly unfree	noticeable problems	flawed democracy
Montenegro	partly free	moderately free	noticeable problems	hybrid regime
Morocco	partly free	moderately free	difficult situation	hybrid regime
Mozambique	partly free	mostly unfree	noticeable problems	authoritarian regime
Namibia	free	moderately free	satisfactory situation	flawed democracy
Nauru	free	n/a	n/a	n/a
Nepal	partly free	mostly unfree	difficult situation	hybrid regime
Netherlands	free	mostly free	good situation	full democracy
New Zealand	free	free	good situation	full democracy
Nicaragua	not free	mostly unfree	difficult situation	authoritarian regime
Niger	partly free	mostly unfree	noticeable problems	authoritarian regime
Nigeria	partly free	mostly unfree	difficult situation	hybrid regime
North Macedonia	partly free	moderately free	noticeable problems	hybrid regime
Norway	free	mostly free	good situation	full democracy
Oman	not free	moderately free	difficult situation	authoritarian regime
Pakistan	partly free	mostly unfree	difficult situation	hybrid regime
Palau	free	n/a	n/a	n/a
Palestine	not free	n/a	difficult situation	authoritarian regime
Panama	free	moderately free	noticeable problems	flawed democracy
Papua New Guinea	partly free	mostly unfree	satisfactory situation	flawed democracy
Paraguay	partly free	moderately free	noticeable problems	flawed democracy
Peru	free	moderately free	noticeable problems	flawed democracy
Philippines	partly free	moderately free	difficult situation	flawed democracy
Poland	free	moderately free	noticeable problems	flawed democracy
Portugal	free	moderately free	good situation	full democracy
Qatar	not free	mostly free	difficult situation	authoritarian regime
Romania	free	moderately free	noticeable problems	flawed democracy
Russia	not free	moderately free	difficult situation	authoritarian regime
Rwanda	not free	mostly free	difficult situation	authoritarian regime
Saint Kitts and Nevis	free	n/a	satisfactory situation	n/a
Saint Lucia	free	moderately free	satisfactory situation	n/a
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	free	moderately free	satisfactory situation	n/a
Samoa	free	moderately free	satisfactory situation	n/a
San Marino	free	n/a	n/a	n/a
São Tomé and Príncipe	free	mostly unfree	n/a	n/a
Saudi Arabia	not free	moderately free	very serious situation	authoritarian regime
Senegal	partly free	mostly unfree	satisfactory situation	hybrid regime
Serbia	partly free	moderately free	noticeable problems	flawed democracy
Seychelles	partly free	moderately free	noticeable problems	n/a
Sierra Leone	partly free	repressed	noticeable problems	hybrid regime
Singapore	partly free	free	very serious situation	flawed democracy
Slovakia	free	moderately free	satisfactory situation	flawed democracy
Slovenia	free	moderately free	satisfactory situation	flawed democracy
Solomon Islands	free	mostly unfree	n/a	n/a
Somalia	not free	n/a	very serious situation	n/a
South Africa	free	mostly unfree	satisfactory situation	flawed democracy
South Sudan	not free	n/a	difficult situation	n/a
Spain	free	moderately free	satisfactory situation	full democracy
Sri Lanka	partly free	mostly unfree	difficult situation	flawed democracy
Sudan	not free	repressed	very serious situation	authoritarian regime
Suriname	free	repressed	satisfactory situation	flawed democracy
Sweden	free	mostly free	good situation	full democracy
Switzerland	free	free	good situation	full democracy
Syria	not free	n/a	very serious situation	authoritarian regime
Taiwan	free	mostly free	satisfactory situation	flawed democracy
Tajikistan	not free	mostly unfree	very serious situation	authoritarian regime
Tanzania	partly free	moderately free	difficult situation	hybrid regime
Thailand	partly free	moderately free	difficult situation	flawed democracy
Togo	partly free	mostly unfree	noticeable problems	authoritarian regime
Tonga	free	mostly unfree	noticeable problems	n/a
Trinidad and Tobago	free	mostly unfree	satisfactory situation	flawed democracy
Tunisia	free	mostly unfree	noticeable problems	flawed democracy
Turkey	not free	moderately free	difficult situation	hybrid regime
Turkmenistan	not free	repressed	very serious situation	authoritarian regime
Tuvalu	free	n/a	n/a	n/a
Uganda	not free	mostly unfree	difficult situation	hybrid regime
Ukraine	partly free	mostly unfree	noticeable problems	hybrid regime
United Arab Emirates	not free	mostly free	difficult situation	authoritarian regime
United Kingdom	free	mostly free	satisfactory situation	full democracy
United States	free	mostly free	satisfactory situation	flawed democracy
Uruguay	free	moderately free	satisfactory situation	full democracy
Uzbekistan	not free	mostly unfree	difficult situation	authoritarian regime
Vanuatu	free	moderately free	n/a	n/a
Venezuela	not free	repressed	difficult situation	authoritarian regime
Vietnam	not free	mostly unfree	very serious situation	authoritarian regime
Yemen	not free	n/a	very serious situation	authoritarian regime
Zambia	partly free	mostly unfree	difficult situation	hybrid regime
Zimbabwe	partly free	repressed	difficult situation	authoritarian regime

Disputed territories

Country	Freedom in the World 2020[11]	2020 Index of Economic Freedom[12]	2020 Press Freedom Index[3]	2019 Democracy Index[15]
Abkhazia	partly free	n/a	n/a	n/a
Crimea	not free	n/a	n/a	n/a
Gaza Strip	not free	n/a	n/a	n/a
Azad Kashmir	not free	n/a	n/a	n/a
Nagorno-Karabakh	partly free	n/a	n/a	n/a
Northern Cyprus	free	n/a	noticeable problems	n/a
Somaliland	partly free		n/a	n/a
South Ossetia	not free	n/a	n/a	n/a
Tibet	not free		n/a	n/a
Transnistria	not free	n/a	n/a	n/a
West Bank	not free	n/a	n/a	n/a
Western Sahara	not free	n/a	n/a	n/a

See also

• Democracy-Dictatorship Index
• Areopagitica: A speech of Mr John Milton for the liberty of unlicensed printing to the Parliament of England
• Censorship by country
• Corruption Perceptions Index
• Ease of doing business index
• Freedom House
• Freedom in the World
• Indices of economic freedom
• Internet censorship and surveillance by country
• Media transparency
• Transparency (behavior)
• Transparency (market)
• United Nations Parliamentary Assembly
• World Index of Moral Freedom

Notes and references

1. "Human Freedom Index". www.cato.org/human-freedom-index. Retrieved September 16, 2016.
2. Craggs, Ryan (January 14, 2013). "World Freedom Index 2013: Canadian Fraser Institute Ranks Countries". Huffington Post.
3. "Press Freedom Index 2020", Reporters Without Borders, April 2020.
4. World Index of Moral Freedom 2016, published by the Foundation for the Advancement of Liberty
5. "MaxRange: Analyzing political regimes and democratization processes". Sweden: School of Education, Humanities and Social Sciences, Halmstad University. April 30, 2015. Archived from the original on August 17, 2018. Retrieved May 2, 2015.
6. https://pol.gu.se/english/varieties-of-democracy--v-dem-
7. "Democracy index 2012: Democracy at a standstill" (PDF). Economist Intelligence Unit. 14 March 2013. Archived (PDF) from the original on 20 March 2017. Retrieved 26 January 2017.
8. "CIRI Human Rights Data Project". humanrightsdat.com. Retrieved October 25, 2013.
9. Michael Kirk (December 10, 2010). "Annual International Human Rights Ratings Announced". University of Connecticut.
10. "Human Rights in 2011: The CIRI Report". CIRI Human Rights Data Project. August 29, 2013.
11. , Freedom House, January 2020. Retrieved 21 April 2020.
12. Heritage Foundation (2020). "Country Rankings". 2020 Index of Economic Freedom.
13. "Polity IV Project". Table footnote. Retrieved 11 Jan 2020.
14. Freedom House (January 28, 2016). Freedom in the World 2016 (PDF).
15. , Economist, January 2020. Retrieved 21 April 2020.

External links

• Economic Freedom of the World. The Fraser Institute. Archived from the original on 2006-09-04.
• Freedom in the World. Freedom House.
• Index of Economic Freedom. The Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on 2008-02-01.
• World Index of Moral Freedom. Foundation for the Advancement of Liberty.
• "Democracy continues its disturbing retreat". The Economist.