For the first time in history, the Economist Democracy Index has ranked Estonia as a “full democracy”. Estonia was upgraded from 'flawed democracy' along with Portugal and the Czech Republic in the new ranking. Overall, the global Democracy Index score has fallen from 5.52 in 2006 to an historic low of 5.17 in 2024. More than one-third (39.2%) of the world's population currently live under authoritarian rule. Sixty countries are now classified as “authoritarian regimes”
Only 25 countries in the world have full democracies. Norway tops the list.
