The Global State of Democracy is a report that aims to provide policymakers with an evidence-based analysis of the state of global democracy, supported by the Global State of Democracy (GSoD) Indices, in order to inform policy interventions and identify problem solving approaches to trends affecting the quality of democracy around the world.

This document describes the procedures used to construct Version 10 of the GSoD Indices, which depicts democratic trends at the country, regional and global levels across a broad range of different attributes of democracy in the period 1975–2025.

The data underlying the GSoD Indices is based on a total of 155 indicators developed by various scholars and organizations using different approaches, including expert surveys, standards-based coding by research groups and analysts, observational data and composite measures.

Details

Publication date
12 June 2026
Language(s)
English
Author(s)
Claudiu D. Tufis, Alexander Hudson
Number of pages
105
ISBN
978-91-8137-165-9 (PDF)

Staff author

Contents

Acknowledgements

About this document

Introduction

1. Data sources

2. Coverage

3. Indicators

4. Assessing the unidimensionality of the Indices

5. Aggregating the indicators into Indices

6. Scaling

7. Confidence intervals

8. Validity checks

Conclusion

References

Annex A. Sources

Annex B. Countries, regions and subregions included in International IDEA’s GSoD Indices

Annex C. Regional organizations included in the data set

Annex D. Attributes, subattributes and indicators

Annex E. Dimensionality tests, factor loadings and Cronbach’s alpha values

Annex F. Item–item correlations

Annex G. Comparisons with extant measures

About the authors

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The Global State of Democracy Indices: Technical Procedures Guide, Version 10 (2026)

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