A new report by the Stockholm-based International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA) has raised serious concerns about the ongoing state of global democracy, as more countries witnessed poor performance in 2024.
IDEA analysed the democratic performance of 173 countries worldwide in 2024.
The report, released on Thursday, revealed that 94 countries – just over half of those surveyed – showed a significant decline in at least one of the indicators from 2019 to 2024.
IDEA Secretary-General Kevin Casas-Zamora said: “The current state of democracy in the world is concerning.”
Some of the biggest markers of decline were seen in the holding of credible elections, access to justice and the effectiveness of parliaments, the report added.
The African continent accounted for the largest share of the global decline with 33 per cent, followed by Europe with 25 per cent.
The West Asia (Middle East) region ranked the lowest in terms of democratic performance.
The report also highlighted some positive examples in Africa, such as Botswana and South Africa, which made consistent advances in the rankings when it came to holding credible elections.
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Denmark was the only country to rank in the top five of all four democratic categories explored in the study: representation, rule of law, participation and rights.
These rankings were dominated by European nations such as Germany, Switzerland, Norway and Luxembourg, while Costa Rica, Chile and Australia also scored well.
While the report highlighted the decline of democracy worldwide, Casas-Zamora said there had been a “very acute deterioration in press freedom”.
From 2019 to 2025, the world witnessed “the biggest drop over the past 50 years”, he said. Sharing his concern, he added: “We’ve never seen such an acute deterioration in a key indicator of democratic health.”
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