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Political regime

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Democracy

What you should know about this indicator

  • Free countries are understood as countries in which citizens have many political rights (free and fair elections, political pluralism and participation, functioning government) and civil liberties (freedoms of expression and association, rule of law, personal autonomy).
  • Partly free country are countries in which citizens have some political rights and civil liberties.
  • Not free country are countries in which citizens have few political rights and civil liberties.
Political regime
The variable identifies the political regime of a country. It distinguishes between free countries (score 2), partly free countries (score 1), and not free countries (score 0).
Source
Freedom House (2024) – processed by Our World in Data
Last updated
May 16, 2024
Next expected update
May 2025
Date range
1972–2023

Related research and writing

Featured image for article on how researchers measure democracy. Four stylized world maps in different colors, reflecting varying data sources.

Democracy data: how sources differ and when to use which one

Bastian Herre

Explore charts that include this data

Political regime classification by source

Sources and processing

This data is based on the following sources

The Freedom in the World report is composed of numerical ratings and supporting descriptive texts for 195 countries and 15 territories. External analysts assess 210 countries and territories, using a combination of on-the-ground research, consultations with local contacts, and information from news articles, nongovernmental organizations, governments, and a variety of other sources. Expert advisers and regional specialists then vet the analysts’ conclusions. The final product represents the consensus of the analysts, advisers, and Freedom House staff.

For each country and territory, Freedom in the World analyzes the electoral process, political pluralism and participation, the functioning of the government, freedom of expression and of belief, associational and organizational rights, the rule of law, and personal autonomy and individual rights.

Retrieved on
May 16, 2024
Retrieved from
https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world
Citation
This is the citation of the original data obtained from the source, prior to any processing or adaptation by Our World in Data. To cite data downloaded from this page, please use the suggested citation given in Reuse This Work below.
House, Freedom. "Freedom in the world. Freedom House." (2021).

How we process data at Our World in Data

All data and visualizations on Our World in Data rely on data sourced from one or several original data providers. Preparing this original data involves several processing steps. Depending on the data, this can include standardizing country names and world region definitions, converting units, calculating derived indicators such as per capita measures, as well as adding or adapting metadata such as the name or the description given to an indicator.

At the link below you can find a detailed description of the structure of our data pipeline, including links to all the code used to prepare data across Our World in Data.

Read about our data pipeline
Notes on our processing step for this indicator

score 0: Not free Score 1: Partly free Score 2: Free

Reuse this work

  • All data produced by third-party providers and made available by Our World in Data are subject to the license terms from the original providers. Our work would not be possible without the data providers we rely on, so we ask you to always cite them appropriately (see below). This is crucial to allow data providers to continue doing their work, enhancing, maintaining and updating valuable data.
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Citations

How to cite this page

To cite this page overall, including any descriptions, FAQs or explanations of the data authored by Our World in Data, please use the following citation:

“Data Page: Political regime”, part of the following publication: Bastian Herre, Lucas Rodés-Guirao and Esteban Ortiz-Ospina (2013) - “Democracy”. Data adapted from Freedom House. Retrieved from https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/political-regime-fh [online resource]
How to cite this data

In-line citationIf you have limited space (e.g. in data visualizations), you can use this abbreviated in-line citation:

Freedom House (2024) – processed by Our World in Data

Full citation

Freedom House (2024) – processed by Our World in Data. “Political regime” [dataset]. Freedom House, “Freedom in the World” [original data]. Retrieved November 22, 2024 from https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/political-regime-fh