The new Democracy Index for 2024 suggests global democracy in decline despite a year full of elections worldwide. After the most election-heavy year in recent history, democracy has hit a record low around the world, according to a new study. The global democracy index score is at just 5.17 out of 10, its lowest point in the history of the Economist Intelligence Unit’s annual Democracy Index.
The EIU’s index has a score out of 10 ranked according to functioning of government, electoral process and pluralism, political culture, and civil liberties. Countries are classified as full democracies (over 8 out of 10), flawed democracies (6-8 out of 10), hybrid regimes (4-6 out of 10), and authoritarian regimes (under 4 out of 10).
Only 25 countries have been designated as full democracies in the report, out of 167 countries covered in the index. To be labelled a flawed democracy, countries like Chile, Israel and Italy have broadly democratic processes but often fall short on at least one metric, such as poor political participation or infringement of civil liberties.
The United Kingdom is ranked 17th worldwide, with a full democracy score of 8.34 out of 10. Following a busy year of local elections and parliamentary elections, the UK’s highest score in the index is for electoral process and pluralism. But in terms of functioning government, the UK ranks just 7.5 out of 10; and its worst score comes in political culture, at 6.88 out of 10.
The United States remains a ‘flawed democracy’, with an index score of 7.85 out of 10, unchanged from the previous year. Its worst metrics are political culture and functioning government. The report’s authors warn that 2025 may bring changes to the US democracy score with uncertainty around checks and balances under President Trump’s second term.
“[There is a] risk of the president seeking retribution, using the Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation to go after political enemies, which would also erode checks and balances. Civil liberties of immigrants, migrants, other minorities and protesters [are] also at risk,” says the report.
On a worldwide level, the report found that political participation has improved between 2008 and 2024, going from 5.22 to 5.25 out of 10. Yet both electoral processes and pluralism - which are the ways in which citizens vote and gain representation - and civil liberties have both deteriorated in the same time frame, according to the report, with the worst deterioration in the Middle East, Asia, and Australasia.
“In 2024, when countries inhabited by more than half of the global population went to the polls, popular disaffection with the performance of government was expressed in an anti-incumbent backlash and rising support for populist insurgents,” the report’s authors wrote.
“Furthermore, the reaction of many mainstream parties and governments has been to do everything in their power to keep the populists out and to present them as illegitimate or even a threat to democracy.“. Just 6.6 per cent of the world’s population now lives under a full democracy, down from 7.8 per cent in the previous year, the report claims.
By contrast, authoritarian regimes govern 39.2 per cent of the world population, according to the report, and 60 countries with the lowest scores including Afghanistan, North Korea, Myanmar and Syria. Western Europe is the region with the most countries designated as full democracies, improving its average score from 8.37 to 8.38 out of 10.
Norway is the world-leader in the Democracy Index with a perfect 10 score on electoral process and pluralism, political participation, and political culture. However, France was downgraded from a full to a flawed democracy in the midst of elections in mid-2024 and political instability, which led to a three-way split in the National Assembly.
France’s “domestic political scene became increasingly fractious” in 2024, the report’s authors wrote, noting that France has previously been ranked as a flawed democracy in periods of unrest such as 2015 to 2018. South Korea also lost its full democracy status and is now classified as a flawed democracy, according to the index, due to the sudden imposition of martial law and immediate reversal in late 2024 for which president Yoon Suk Yeol was impeached.
