Global patterns show that democracy around the world continued to weaken last year, according to a new report.
The Global State of Democracy 2025, published by the Stockholm-based International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA), analyzed democratic performance in 173 countries in 2024.
In the report, 94 countries — or just over half of those surveyed — showed a decline in at least one of the key democracy indicators between 2019 and 2024, the report said. In comparison, only a third made progress.
“The current state of democracy in the world is concerning,” IDEA Secretary General Kevin Casas-Zamora said.
Some of the biggest declines compared to 2019 were seen around the holding of credible elections, access to justice and having an effective parliament, the report found.
Africa accounted for the largest share of the global decline with 33%, followed by Europe with 25%.
West Asia is the region ranking lowest on democratic performance.
Europe dominates democracy rankings
The report highlighted some positive examples, such and making consistent advances when it comes to credible elections, with both countries holding polls in 2024 that led to historic changes.
Denmark was the only country in the top five of all four democratic categories explored in the study: Representation, rule of law, participation and rights.
These rankings were dominated by European nations such as Germany, Switzerland, Norway and Luxembourg, with Costa Rica, Chile and Australia also scoring well.
Press freedom sees biggest fall in 50 years
The “very acute deterioration in press freedom,” was an important finding, Keven Casas-Zamora said.
Between 2019 and 2024, the world saw “the biggest drop over the past 50 years,” he said.
declined in 43 countries across all continents, including 15 in Africa and 15 in Europe.
“We’ve never seen such an acute deterioration in a key indicator of democratic health,” he said.
, Burkina Faso and Myanmar — already among the poorest performers in press freedoms — posted the biggest falls, followed by .
The Asian nation saw a “spike in defamation cases initiated by the government and its political allies against journalists, and raids on journalists’ residences,” the report found.
Casas-Zamora attributed the global fall in media freedom to a combination of heavy-handed interventions on the part of governments, pandemic legacies and “the very negative impact of disinformation.”
“Some of [this] is real disinformation and some of which is used as a pretext by governments to clamp down on press freedoms,” he said.
Declining democracy in the United States
The report only includes data from before took power in January.
But it stresses that IDEA has documented instances in which the Trump administration has “eroded and abolished the rules, institutions and norms that have shaped US democracy.”
The ranks lower than many other OECD countries, sitting at 35th place when it comes to representation and 32nd for rights.
It only scores highly for participation, coming in 6th place.
“Some of the things that we saw during the election at the end of last year and in the first few months of 2025 are fairly disturbing,” Casas-Zamora said.
“Since what happens in the US has this ability to go global, this does not bode well for democracy globally,” he added.
Edited by: Sean Sinico
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