Democracy Index 2021: the China challenge

Democratisation suffered more reversals in 2021, with the percentage of people living in a democracy falling to well below 50% and authoritarian regimes gaining ground. This year’s report finds that democracy experienced its biggest annual decline since 2010, when the global financial crash led to major setbacks. The index score fell for all but one region, with pandemic-related restrictions continuing to constrain individual freedoms.

Alongside the full global rankings table, a regional wrap-up and a look at the key country movers, this edition of the Democracy Index also asks the question: how much of a challenge does China’s political model pose globally?

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Should the West be worried?

EIU’s Democracy Index provides a snapshot of the state of democracy worldwide in 165 independent states and two territories.

2021 rankings

Top 5	Country	Score
1	Norway	9.75
2	New Zealand	9.37
3	Finland	9.27
4	Sweden	9.26
5	Iceland	9.18

Bottom 5	Country	Score
163	Central African Republic	1.43
164	Dem. Republic of Congo	1.40
165	North Korea	1.08
166	Myanmar	1.02
167	Afghanistan	0.32

How EIU measures democracy

1.

The Democracy Index is based on 60 indicators, grouped into five categories: electoral process and pluralism, civil liberties, functioning of government, political participation and political culture.

2.

Countries are given a rating on a zero to ten scale, and the overall index is the average of the five total category scores.

3.

Each country is then grouped into four types of regime, based on their average score: full democracies, flawed democracies, hybrid regimes and authoritarian regimes.

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