Is there less freedom in the world? Conclusions from a global study

Earlier we talked about the indicators of Ukraine in the global ranking, today we will talk about the general conclusions of the study – about the challenges to democracy and freedom that the world is facing.

For the 17th year in a row, Freedom House records a decline in the global level of freedom in the world. This, in particular, was influenced by Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine.

In 2023, 43% of countries are free, 28% are partially free, and 29% are not free.

The five freest countries are Sweden, Finland, Norway, New Zealand and Canada. Instead, the most unfree are South Sudan, Syria, Turkmenistan, North Korea and Eritrea. Expected: Russia, Belarus, China, Iran are neighbors at the very bottom of the freedom rating in the group of “unfree”.

The population distribution is as follows: only 20% (1.58 billion people) live in free countries, 41% (3.24 billion people) live in partially free countries, and 39% (3.1 billion people) live in unfree countries.

Encroachment on freedom of speech was and remains one of the key factors in the decline of freedom. In 2022, media freedom was suppressed in at least 157 countries and territories. Freedom of expression scores also dropped. As Freedom House points out, this is due to increasing intrusions into privacy, harassment and incentives for self-censorship, online and offline.

According to the organization, the struggle for freedom in the world may be approaching a turning point. And here there are reasons for optimism. The difference between the number of countries recording a decline in freedom and those recording an improvement is the smallest in 17 years of global decline in freedom. In 2022, 34 countries improved their indicators, and 35 – worsened.

Freedom House also optimistically states that 2022 has shown that although authoritarian regimes are extremely dangerous, they are not invincible. The mistakes of autocrats pave the way for democratic forces. Especially if they are able to show solidarity and energy in the fight for freedom.