WASHINGTON—As the world marks International Day of Democracy today, backsliding continues to be the dominant global trend. But that trend is not irreversible, and the data show what is at stake: even as political freedom has declined globally, countries that democratize see stronger long-term economic growth and broader gains in prosperity.
Here is a look at the state of global democracy today.
Democracy is on the decline
The Freedom and Prosperity Indexes show that political freedom has been deteriorating across the world since 2012, a reversal of seventeen consecutive years of improvement since 1995. This trend has impacted all regions, and 124 of the 171 countries with available data score lower in the political freedom subindex now than they did in 2012. Global backsliding began with the erosion of political rights and civil liberties and has been accelerated more recently by executive aggrandizement and declines in electoral integrity.
Declines in every indicator of political freedom since 2012
Other democracy metrics corroborate this continued decline; Freedom House found that nineteen more countries experienced deterioration in civil liberties and political rights than experienced improvement in 2025, and this year’s democracy report from Varieties of Democracy notes that 74 percent of the world’s population now lives in autocracies.
The benefits of democratization are hard to beat
Autocrats may be gaining ground, but that does not mean autocracy is delivering better economic results.
Countries that democratize experience 8.8 percent greater gross domestic product (GDP) growth over twenty years compared to their autocratic counterparts. More broadly, the data show a strong correlation between freedom and prosperity, which includes income, health, income equality, environmental health, opportunities for minority groups, and education. Of the thirteen countries where prosperity levels have dropped since 2012, twelve have declined in freedom. Furthermore, the median increase in prosperity for countries where freedom has improved since 2012 is a full point higher than for countries where freedom has declined.
Democratization leads to long-term economic growth
People around the world seem to understand this. A Democracy Without Borders survey from May found that over two-thirds of respondents view democracy as very important, with respondents from 62 percent of countries surveyed indicating that the main purpose of democracy is to improve living standards.
Breakthrough cases: the decline is not destiny
While every region of the world has experienced a decline in political freedom since 2012, not every country has. A regionally diverse group of countries, including The Gambia, Sri Lanka, and Malaysia, has significantly strengthened democratic governance in recent years, with each now serving as a standard-bearer for its respective region.
Countries making democratic gains
Crucially, there are also countries that have made more recent turns toward democracy that do not yet show up in the data. Hungarian voters ousted former Prime Minister Viktor Orbán in April, who was widely seen as “unoustable” for years and even in the immediate buildup to the election. Bangladesh saw a two-point improvement in political freedom in 2025 after youth-led protests forced the resignation of Sheikh Hasina, a former prime minister who had systematically eroded political freedom over the decade and a half during which she held power.
Youth protests in other countries, such as Nepal and Madagascar, have also sought to advance democratic accountability. This indicates that the appetite for democracy remains, as does civil society’s ability to effect change.
What comes next?
The demand for democracy has survived the autocratic wave. From street protests to online organizing, young people in particular are using new technologies in creative ways to press for accountability and lend their voices to democratic values.
But autocrats are difficult to unseat, and democratic institutions are not built overnight.
