The State of Democracy In Each Region Of the World

The world’s (almost) eight billion people live under a wide variety of political and cultural circumstances…[that] can be measured and presented on a sliding scale between “free” (democracy) and “not free” (authoritarian) and the…Democracy Index report by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), is one such attempt to apply a score to countries based on how closely they measure up to democratic ideals.

According to EIU, the state of democracy is at its lowest point since the index began in 2006, dropping from an average global score of 5.37 to 5.28, the biggest drop since 2010 after the global financial crisis….[which] translates into the sobering fact that only 46% of the population is living in a democracy “of some sort.”

Below is a look at the democratic state of each region in the world:

The Americas

Europe

Africa

Middle East and Central Asia

East Asia and Oceania

Decline in Global Democracy Levels

Two years after the world got hit by the pandemic, we can see that global democracy is in a downward trend with very region’s global score experiencing  a drop, with the exception of Western Europe, which remained flat. Out of the 167 countries, 74 (44%) experienced a decline in their democracy score.

Editor’s Note: The above article is an edited and abridged version of the original post on visualcapitalist.com by Raul Amoros with article editing by Nick Routley and graphics design by Sabrina Fortin.