Highlights of Global Democracy Index 2019

The Global Democracy Index 2019 is an index compiled by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU). The index ranks 167 countries on 60 indicators across five broad categories. These categories are- the functioning of government, electoral process and pluralism, political participation, civil liberties and democratic political culture.
Other than this, the index also classifies the countries in four different regimes namely- Full democracies, Flawed democracies, Hybrid regimes and Authoritarian regimes.

Global Findings-

The Global Democracy Index 2019 found that only 4.5% of the world’s population lives in a full democracy.
For the first time in three years, the overall global score has remained stable in the year 2018.
The report has also highlights that 42 countries have experienced a decline in their index scores as compared with 89 in 2017 while 48 countries have improved their score.
The Index has been topped by Norway. It is followed by Iceland and Sweden.
The entire Asia-Pacific region has only Australia and New Zealand as “full democracies”.
The US has been ranked 25th in the index.
The index further highlighted that 8 countries- Democratic Republic of Congo, Nepal, Algeria, Timor-Leste, Ethiopia, North Korea, Laos and Sri Lanka which have the word “democratic" in full as title were not fully democratic.
North Korea has been placed last i.e. on 167th rank in the index.

India has been ranked 41st in the Global Democracy index 2019 with a score of 7.23.
India has been termed as “Flawed Democracy” in the index. The index has always classified India as Flawed Democracy since the beginning i.e. 2006.
A Flawed Democracy is a country where elections are fair and free. Other than this, basic civil liberties are also honored in such countries but these countries have some issues like media freedom infringement.
India has performed worst in political culture, out of all the five parameters.

The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) is the research and analysis division of a British multinational media company "The Economist Group".
EIU is headquartered in London, UK.
The EIU is the world leader in global business intelligence and produce high quality research and data.
First Global Democracy Index was released in the year 2006.