# Democracy in Europe

Democracy in Europe can be comparatively assessed according to various definitions of democracy. According to the V-Dem Democracy Indices, the European countries with the highest democracy scores in 2023 are Denmark, Norway and Sweden, meanwhile the European countries with lowest democracy scores in 2023 are Belarus, Russia and Turkey.

## Changes in democracy

After the fall of Communism most countries in Central and Eastern Europe either democratized or re-democratized. Some democratic backsliding can be observed in parts of Europe, including Hungary and Poland. The V-Dem Democracy Report identified for the year 2023 Montenegro and Kosovo as cases of stand-alone democratization and North Macedonia as a case of U-Turn democratization, while Poland as a small but statistically insignificant uptick in liberal democracy index. Some view European democracies have become more consensual and less majoritarian over time. Increased importance of constitutionalism has been claimed.

## Measures of democracy

The table below shows European countries scored on 2 high-level V-Dem Democracy indices and 4 mid-level Democracy Component indices evaluating the state of democracy in year 2024 which were published in 2025.
V-Dem Democracy Indices (15th edition) :
| Country | Democracy Indices | Democracy Indices | Democracy Component Indices | Democracy Component Indices | Democracy Component Indices | Democracy Component Indices |
| Country | Electoral | Liberal | Liberal | Egalitarian | Participatory | Deliberative |
| Denmark | 0.916 | 0.883 | 0.976 | 0.97 | 0.713 | 0.965 |
| Estonia | 0.895 | 0.85 | 0.961 | 0.901 | 0.634 | 0.868 |
| Ireland | 0.895 | 0.83 | 0.932 | 0.87 | 0.633 | 0.905 |
| Switzerland | 0.894 | 0.847 | 0.962 | 0.937 | 0.881 | 0.984 |
| Belgium | 0.886 | 0.805 | 0.908 | 0.93 | 0.643 | 0.887 |
| Norway | 0.884 | 0.839 | 0.962 | 0.959 | 0.656 | 0.986 |
| Sweden | 0.881 | 0.845 | 0.978 | 0.907 | 0.653 | 0.908 |
| Czech Republic | 0.87 | 0.817 | 0.952 | 0.91 | 0.59 | 0.873 |
| Luxembourg | 0.867 | 0.783 | 0.903 | 0.937 | 0.568 | 0.971 |
| France | 0.866 | 0.799 | 0.93 | 0.824 | 0.635 | 0.938 |
| Finland | 0.847 | 0.802 | 0.966 | 0.865 | 0.645 | 0.922 |
| Iceland | 0.844 | 0.759 | 0.907 | 0.908 | 0.662 | 0.902 |
| Austria | 0.839 | 0.762 | 0.918 | 0.862 | 0.624 | 0.851 |
| Germany | 0.839 | 0.792 | 0.963 | 0.931 | 0.653 | 0.98 |
| Latvia | 0.838 | 0.765 | 0.922 | 0.866 | 0.661 | 0.822 |
| United Kingdom | 0.833 | 0.752 | 0.91 | 0.784 | 0.637 | 0.867 |
| Portugal | 0.831 | 0.751 | 0.91 | 0.799 | 0.609 | 0.891 |
| Spain | 0.829 | 0.745 | 0.906 | 0.839 | 0.635 | 0.841 |
| Netherlands | 0.822 | 0.761 | 0.944 | 0.893 | 0.62 | 0.893 |
| Italy | 0.803 | 0.705 | 0.882 | 0.902 | 0.748 | 0.865 |
| Lithuania | 0.799 | 0.734 | 0.936 | 0.877 | 0.679 | 0.809 |
| Malta | 0.785 | 0.637 | 0.797 | 0.892 | 0.637 | 0.8 |
| Cyprus | 0.774 | 0.651 | 0.839 | 0.902 | 0.566 | 0.831 |
| Slovakia | 0.752 | 0.584 | 0.754 | 0.766 | 0.648 | 0.37 |
| Greece | 0.75 | 0.576 | 0.741 | 0.875 | 0.638 | 0.83 |
| Poland | 0.729 | 0.616 | 0.844 | 0.879 | 0.614 | 0.842 |
| Croatia | 0.723 | 0.619 | 0.862 | 0.779 | 0.624 | 0.681 |
| Slovenia | 0.716 | 0.619 | 0.869 | 0.886 | 0.746 | 0.861 |
| Kosovo | 0.651 | 0.473 | 0.692 | 0.675 | 0.468 | 0.55 |
| Bulgaria | 0.646 | 0.508 | 0.77 | 0.603 | 0.669 | 0.837 |
| Moldova | 0.632 | 0.518 | 0.807 | 0.784 | 0.666 | 0.798 |
| Romania | 0.629 | 0.445 | 0.67 | 0.679 | 0.621 | 0.32 |
| Armenia | 0.623 | 0.414 | 0.61 | 0.802 | 0.411 | 0.688 |
| Montenegro | 0.615 | 0.478 | 0.755 | 0.76 | 0.581 | 0.724 |
| North Macedonia | 0.563 | 0.374 | 0.61 | 0.596 | 0.588 | 0.587 |
| Bosnia and Herzegovina | 0.508 | 0.342 | 0.613 | 0.653 | 0.517 | 0.614 |
| Albania | 0.507 | 0.396 | 0.742 | 0.673 | 0.537 | 0.418 |
| Georgia | 0.48 | 0.328 | 0.615 | 0.726 | 0.507 | 0.751 |
| Hungary | 0.436 | 0.318 | 0.654 | 0.635 | 0.534 | 0.309 |
| Ukraine | 0.389 | 0.233 | 0.486 | 0.638 | 0.575 | 0.791 |
| Serbia | 0.315 | 0.22 | 0.544 | 0.736 | 0.552 | 0.494 |
| Turkey | 0.288 | 0.117 | 0.255 | 0.539 | 0.422 | 0.182 |
| Russia | 0.172 | 0.056 | 0.143 | 0.371 | 0.376 | 0.109 |
| Belarus | 0.161 | 0.036 | 0.081 | 0.764 | 0.146 | 0.06 |

## By country
### Azerbaijan

Ahead of the 2024 Azerbaijani presidential election, Amnesty International reported an increased crackdown on the right to freedom of expression, repression of peaceful dissent, a coordinated assault on civil society, and the targeting of critical voices by President Ilham Aliyev.

### Belarus

Unfair elections were reported in Belarus.

### Georgia

Electoral fraud was reported at the 2024 Georgian parliamentary election.

### Russia

Unfair elections were reported in Russia due to political repression and allegations of electoral fraud. Lack of freedom of the press resulted that most of Russians believe that the elections in Russia are mostly fair.

### Serbia

At 2023 Serbian parliamentary election electoral fraud was reported.

### Turkey

Limited political freedom of the press is reported in Turkey.