Only 8% of the world’s population reside in a ‘full democracy’: report

The state of global democracy declined in 2023, the EIU reported.

Only 7.8% of the world’s population lived within a “full democracy,” down from 8.9% in 2015 the EIU reported.

In its Democracy Index 2023, the EIU also found that 37.6% were in countries with “flawed democracy,”  39.4% of 74 countries were under authoritarian regime, whilst 15.2% were in hybrid regime. 

Among the best performing countries is Greece, which ranked first in the index. Papua New Guinea and Paraguay moved up to the lower end of “flawed democracies” from “hybrid regime,” whilst Chile was relegated to the “flawed democracy” classification. 

The index measures democracy based on a 0-10 scale rating across 60 indicators, grouped into 5 categories: electoral process and pluralism, civil liberties, the functioning of government, political participation, and political culture.

“Only 32 countries improved their index score in 2023, while 68 countries registered a decline. The scores for 67 countries stayed the same, painting a global picture of stagnation and regression,” the report read in part.  

“Most of the regression globally occurred among non-democracies, as ‘authoritarian regimes’ became more entrenched and countries classified as ‘hybrid regimes’ struggled to democratise.”