According to this year’s Global State of Democracy report from the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA), 2025 marked the eleventh consecutive year in which more countries experienced democratic decline than improvement based on latest data.
Of the 174 countries assessed, 98 countries (57%) declined in at least one factor of democratic performance compared to five years earlier, up three percentage points from 2024, while 55 (32%) improved in at least one factor, unchanged from 2024. Stagnation is the clearest trend, with 81% of cases showing no change between 2020 and 2025.
Most countries sit in mid-to-low performance across the four categories examined: Representation, Rights, Rule of Law and Participation. The report warns that those at the lower end of this “politically fragile in-between condition” face heightened risk of instability and conflict.
Global assessments
In the Rights category, Freedom of Expression again recorded the largest global decline of any civil liberties sub-factor, affecting 42 countries (24%), followed by Freedom of Press in 39 countries (23%). Europe and Africa each accounted for 29% of global declines in both. Afghanistan and Myanmar had the steepest decline and Syria showed one of the highest improvements after the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime. Access to Justice declined in 39 countries (18%), with Africa and Europe making up 65% of those declines.
Basic Welfare is considered part of the Rights category as well. Improvements in this field according to the report mainly reflected recovery after the Covid-19 pandemic and thus were not included in the analysis.
Seventy-one countries (41%) were low-performing on Rule of Law, and the category recorded the most declines of any, affecting 29 countries (17%). It is measured by four factors: Judicial Independence, Absence of Corruption, Predictable Enforcement, and Personal Integrity and Security. Judicial Independence has been greatly affected in the USA by the administration’s executive overreach.
Civil Society and Civic Engagement, factors within Participation, declined in 17 countries, driven by the criminalisation of peaceful protest, lawsuits against public participation and foreign agent laws. Belarus, for instance, has no independent media, over 1,000 political prisoners and a heavily regulated civil society space, pushing many activists to flee and organise abroad. Australia improved its Participation score through consultation with civil society groups.
The trend in the Representation category was negative: seventeen significant declines against only four advances, most declines in already low-performing countries. One in five countries declined in Credible Elections and Effective Parliament. Credible Elections fell in 32 countries (18%), including the high-performing United Kingdom. Effective Parliaments fell in 33 countries (19%), Italy was the only high performer to decline.
Regional trends
In Africa and West Asia, most declines were in Rights and Representation, with improvements concentrated in Basic Welfare, Credible Elections, Elected Government, and Personal Integrity and Security. Togo and Burkina Faso declined in at least four of five measures, while Syria, Gabon and Gambia improved.
In the Americas, most declines were in Central America and most improvements in South America. El Salvador declined in eight factors, the region’s highest.
The report treats US democratic decline as a special case study. Free Political Parties, Effective Parliament, Access to Justice and Judicial Independence are at their lowest levels since the dataset begins in 1975. In 2025 the USA performed highly in only one category, down from three in 2024. The report describes an “ongoing crisis” with severe consequences far beyond US borders.
In Asia and the Pacific, Myanmar and Afghanistan accounted for 23 of the region’s 52 declines, without them the region would have been net positive. Bangladesh had three declines tied to the January 2024 election but seven advances from subsequent reforms.
In Europe, Georgia and Russia had the most declines (eight each), mainly through the suppression of dissent and civil liberties. Improvements were concentrated in Central Europe: Poland recorded seven advances across all four categories, notably through changed consultation rules that improved the quality of legislation.
Key findings and recommendations
The report makes three key points: a falling number of democracies raises the risk of conflict, since research indicates democracies do not attack one another; countries between consolidated democracy and full autocracy face higher conflict risk; and globalisation makes intrastate conflict a concern for all governments.
Its recommendations for governments, donors and civil society include investing in democracy support abroad to reduce conflict risk, prioritising domestic and global social accountability and cohesion so citizens can hold power to account without violence, and holding resources in reserve for early intervention where democratic decline raises conflict risk.
The assessments draw on 155 indicators from 23 data sources, covering 174 countries from 1975 to 2025. Source datasets may provide new data for past years which may lead to changes in summary statistics.
Elena is a final-year Philosophy, Politics and Economics student at University College Dublin.
