Norway Has the Highest Democracy Index in the World

Norway was the country with the highest democracy index in the world in 2019, scoring 9.87 out of a scale of 0 to 10. Iceland and Sweden followed with scores of 9.58 and 9.39 respectively.

The average global democracy index last year was 5.44. This figure is down from 5.48 the previous year. The 2019 democracy index was the worst since its inception in 2006. One of the causes of this decline was the large wave of political protests and unrest in several developing regions.

The democracy index, compiled by The Economist Intelligence Unit, is on a scale of 0 to 10. The assessment is based on 60 indicators grouped into five categories: electoral process and pluralism, civil liberties, functioning of government, political participation, and political culture. Each category uses the same scale, and the overall index is the average of these five indices.