It's a free country -- for 21 percent of the world
Even as long-reigning autocrats such as Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei are removed from power, the outlook for the global state of democracy remains highly uncertain.
The year 2025 marked 20 consecutive years of decline in global freedom. That is the major finding of our new Freedom House “Freedom in the World” report, which has assessed political rights and civil liberties across the globe annually since 1973.
A mere 21 percent of the world’s population now lives in a country rated “free” – down from 46 percent in 2005. This decline has been driven by military coups d’état, armed conflicts, efforts by elected leaders to undermine checks on their own power, and autocrats’ crackdowns on the last legal defenses available to their opponents.
After a several-decade hiatus, military coups have once again proliferated in recent years. In Africa alone, nine countries have experienced successful coups – some more than one – since 2019. Beyond the immediate damage caused to democracy by a government’s overthrow, military juntas tend to ratchet up repression over time to maintain power. In Mali, which in Freedom House’s index has lost an astounding 53 points on a 100-point scale since 2005, multiple coups have not only led to an indefinite postponement of elections and the abolition of all political parties but also to widespread harassment and arrest of journalists and the complete undermining of judicial independence.
https://www.heraldnet.com/2026/03/21/its-a-free-country-for-21-percent-of-the-world/
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