In their new annual assessment, Freedom House based in Washington D.C. announced a global decline in freedom scores in 2025, marking a 20th consecutive year of overall deterioration.
According to the report released last week, civil rights and political liberties declined in 54 countries during the previous year. In contrast, only 35 countries experienced improvements.
The assessment covers 195 countries and 13 territories. In 2025, 89 were considered “free”, 52 “partly free” and 67 “not free.” A status change was recorded in three cases: Bolivia, Fiji, and Malawi improved from “partly free” to “free.”
Data provided by Freedom House indicates that there was no change in the number of electoral democracies among the 195 countries covered by the report. As in the previous year, it is 106.
Again more decline than improvement
Guinea-Bissau, Tanzania, Burkina Faso, Madagascar, and El Salvador yielded the largest one-year score declines. The largest theme for the calendar year in the shortfall of democracy was military coups d’état and acts where incumbent leaders sought to undermine democratic processes.
Guinea-Bissau experienced the year’s largest score change in Freedom House’s assessment. This was due to major disruptions at the November general election in which a coup occurred. Tanzania was a close second, following the trend of undermining electoral processes by restricting the media, using widespread violence, and the exclusion of opposition candidates. El Salvador tied with Madagascar for the third largest decline globally.
Further conflict and repression by authoritarian governments were seen among countries that were already rated zero among many of the 25 indicators measured by Freedom House. The Sudanese civil war saw horrific human rights violations with mass killings, sexual violence, and forced displacement. Myanmar saw similar events with their ongoing civil war. Iran was shaken by mass arrests of 21,000 people in the heat of their 12-day war with Israel, as well as the regime’s illegal expulsion of 1.8 million Afghan migrants. As Russia continued its full-scale war of aggression against Ukraine for a fourth year, it has increasingly prosecuted citizens for outspoken speech and activism against the Kremlin’s war. The Chinese Communist Party has also continued to repress their citizens‘ liberties.
According to the report, “a growing number of authoritarian regimes” banded together at the global level “to undermine civil society groups, international institutions, and election monitoring in a campaign to make the world safer for autocracy.” At the same time, the U.S. and European Union member states have “pivoted significantly away” from foreign aid programs designed to help advance political rights and civil liberties.
In 2025 the U.S., Italy, and Bulgaria saw some of the sharpest declines in freedom among countries rated as «free». The report expresses a particular concern with the U.S. when it states that in «the United States, an escalation in both legislative dysfunction and executive dominance, growing pressure on people’s ability to engage in free expression, and the new administration’s moves to undermine anticorruption safeguards all contributed to the negative score change.” Both Italy and the U.S. have sought to undermine anti-corruption measures.
The U.S. also set a precedent for undermining multilateral institutions. The report points out that Trump during his address to the UN General Assembly in September 2025 labelled the United Nations “as an obstacle rather than a forum for addressing global challenges.” These words have been followed up by the U.S. removing itself from many UN bodies as well as a dramatic reduction in U.S. foreign aid. The UK and various EU countries too followed the trend of cutting foreign aid.
Positive trends
There were notable positive events which occurred in 2025. Syria, Sri Lanka, Bolivia, and Gabon recorded the largest gains according to the report. The assessments of Sri Lanka, Bolivia, Fiji, and Malawi improved in light of peaceful transfers of power in national elections. Although Syria and Gabon remain “not free”, they emerged from eras of authoritarian rule. Both transitional governments have taken commendable steps in rebuilding political institutions and in the application of basic rights, Freedom House says.
The report highlights that out of 87 countries that were rated “free” back in 2005, a total of 76 (more than 85%) have remained “free” throughout these two decades of overall decline. While only 21% of the world’s population live in “free” countries, democracy still prevails. “Despite internal pressures and threats from foreign powers, democracies continue to demonstrate that their domestic political systems are responsive and capable of course correction”, the report notes.
Protests in the countries rated “not free” or “partly free” are frequent challenges for these autocratic regimes. From Turkey to China, from Georgia to Hungary, many people under authoritarian rule seek legitimate representation.
Today 88 of the 195 countries covered in the report are rated “free.” This statistic is more than double what it was back when Freedom in the World was first published in 1973. The Freedom House report states a variety of reasons why democracy continues to prevail. From them performing economically superior to their authoritarian counterparts, the ability to accommodate societal and policy differences, and democracies overall being durable once established.
To combat further decline globally, the Freedom House report urges policymakers, practitioners, and partners to “strengthen democratic coordination and collective action in a contested global order, reimagine international democracy assistance, and prioritise engagement with younger generations.”
