Latvia ranked among the world’s top 20 democracies in Swedish research / Article

Latvia is listed among a group of 22 leading nations worldwide and qualifies as a full liberal democracy, ahead of “electoral democracies” such as the United States, “electoral autocracies” such as Russia and “closed autocracies” such as China.

Latvia ranks in 20th place in the ‘Liberal Democracy Index’ among countries who earn full “liberal democracy” status according to the V-Dem Institute’s rankings. Estonia has a higher ranking still (5th place) while Lithuania is slightly lower (27th place).

Over the longer term, too, Latvia has maintained its place as a bastion of democratic values in the top 10% worldwide, according to the V-Dem Institute data (see graph below). The Baltic States are singled out as particular beacons of liberal democracy in Eastern Europe.

“In Eastern Europe, only 29% of people enjoy democracy: 5% live in the liberal democracies Czechia and the Baltics while 24% reside in electoral democracies, such as Bulgaria or Poland. A large majority – 65% – live in electoral autocracies, such as in Hungary, Russia, or Serbia. Belarus is the only closed autocracy, with 3% of the population,” says the report.

Despite the encouraging assessment of Latvia, the report as a whole makes for sobering reading, and points towards autocracy enjoying an alarming resurgence, even in countries traditionally associated strongly with democratic, liberal values.

“The world is increasingly volatile. The number of countries in regime transformation is up to 62 in 2025 from 44 just ten years ago. The world has never before seen as many countries autocratizing at the same time as during the last few years,” says the report.

“In 2025, 44 autocratizing countries harbor 41% of the world population, cover 26% of the world land area, and account for 39% of the world GDP. A mere 5% of the world population reside in 18 democratizing countries… The European Union is greatly affected. Autocratization dominates in Eastern Europe, affects seven member states and two main allies – the UK and the USA,” the report warns.

Indeed, the rapid decline of American liberal democracy is one of the report’s main headlines.

“The United States of America (USA) stands out as a conspicuous example. It is an exceptional new autocratizer due to both far-reaching changes in 2025 and their implications for the rest of the world. The extensive damage already done to American democracy under the second Trump presidency – in just one year – stands out on the world map. Typically, autocratizing countries of the “third wave” have taken about a decade to make such a deep dive, and the speed of decline is comparable to some coups d´états,” notes the report.

You can read the full rankings and evaluate the methodology used in the report here.

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