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List of freedom indices

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This article is 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. Some of the indices measure only some aspects of freedom, such as democracy or corruption.

Prominent indices

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The indices and their origins:

  • Canada
    • The Economic Freedom of the World 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
    • World 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]
    • V-Dem Democracy indices by V-Dem Institute at the Department of Political Science at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden is an approach to conceptualizing and measuring democracy. It provides 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]
    • International IDEAs "Global State of Democracy Report" provides democratic performance of 168 to 170 countries. "The GSoD Indices are based on 116 individual indicators devised by various scholars and organizations using different types of sources: expert surveys, standards-based coding by research groups and analysts, observational data and composite measures. The Varieties of Democracy project is the largest contributor of indicators to the Global State of Democracies Indices.[7]
  • Switzerland
    • Global Corruption Index, rates and ranks countries by a metric that measures the risk of corruption in the country by using 43 variables. It covers 196 countries and territories and is published by the Swiss-based company, Global Risk Profile.[8]
  • UK
    • The Economist Democracy Index, published by the UK-based Economist Intelligence Unit, is an assessment of countries' democracy. Countries are rated as 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.[9]
  • US

Annual assessments

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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.

Index Scale
Freedom in the World 1 free 3 partly free 5 not free
Index of Economic Freedom 1 free 2 mostly free 3 moderately free 4 mostly unfree 5 repressed
World Press Freedom Index 1 good 2 satisfactory 3 problematic 4 difficult 5 very serious
The Economist Democracy Index 1 full democracy 2 flawed democracy 3 hybrid regime 5 authoritarian


List of scores by country

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Disputed territories

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See also

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Notes and references

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  1. ^ "Human Freedom Index". www.cato.org/human-freedom-index. Archived from the original on September 14, 2016. Retrieved September 16, 2016.
  2. ^ Craggs, Ryan (January 14, 2013). "World Freedom Index 2013: Canadian Fraser Institute Ranks Countries". Huffington Post. Archived from the original on October 19, 2017. Retrieved March 26, 2013.
  3. ^ a b c "Index", Reporters Without Borders, retrieved 2022-08-19
  4. ^ World Index of Moral Freedom (PDF) (4th ed.), The Foundation for the Advancement of Liberty, retrieved 2022-08-19
  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. ^ "Democracy Report 2022: Autocratization Changing Nature?" (PDF), V-Dem Institute, University of Gothenburg
  7. ^ "International IDEA". International IDEA. Dec 23, 2022. Retrieved Jan 2, 2023.
  8. ^ "Global Corruption Index | Global Corruption & ESG Indexes". Retrieved 2022-07-08.
  9. ^ "Democracy Index 2021: the China challenge". Economist Intelligence Unit. Retrieved 2022-08-19.
  10. ^ "CIRI Human Rights Data Project". humanrightsdat.com. Archived from the original on April 8, 2020. Retrieved October 25, 2013.
  11. ^ Michael Kirk (December 10, 2010). "Annual International Human Rights Ratings Announced". University of Connecticut. Archived from the original on October 29, 2013. Retrieved October 25, 2013.
  12. ^ "Human Rights in 2011: The CIRI Report". CIRI Human Rights Data Project. August 29, 2013. Archived from the original on October 29, 2013. Retrieved October 25, 2013.
  13. ^ "Countries and Territories", Freedom in the World, retrieved 2022-08-19
  14. ^ Heritage Foundation (2021). "Country Rankings". 2021 Index of Economic Freedom. Archived from the original on 2017-09-16. Retrieved 2014-08-07.
  15. ^ "Polity IV Project". Table footnote. Archived from the original on 4 May 2020. Retrieved 11 Jan 2020.
  16. ^ "Countries and Territories". Freedom House. Retrieved 2024-03-02.
  17. ^ Foundation, The Heritage. "Index of Economic Freedom: All Country Scores | The Heritage Foundation". Index of Economic Freedom | The Heritage Foundation. Retrieved 2024-03-03.
  18. ^ "Democracy Index 2023". Economist Intelligence Unit. Retrieved 2024-03-03.
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