Freedom House world map 2005.png|thumb|350px|This map reflects the findings of Freedom House's 2006 survey Freedom in the World, concerning the state of world freedom in 2005. Some of these estimates are disputed. ]]

Freedom in the World is a yearly report by Freedom House which purports to measure the degree of democracy and freedom in every nation and significant disputed territories around the world, and which produces annual scores representing the levels of political rights and civil liberties in each state and territory, on a scale from 1 (most free) to 7 (least free). Depending on the ratings, the nations are then classified as Free, Partly Free, and Not Free. The ratings in this table reflect global events from 1 December 2004 through 30 November 2005.

An asterisk (*) indicates countries which are electoral democracies. To qualify as an "electoral democracy", a state must have satisfied the following criteria:

1. A competitive, multiparty political system;
2. Universal adult suffrage for all citizens (with exceptions for restrictions that states may legitimately place on citizens as sanctions for criminal offenses);
3. Regularly contested elections conducted in conditions of ballot secrecy, reasonable ballot security, and in the absence of massive voter fraud that yields results that are unrepresentative of the public will;
4. Significant public access of major political parties to the electorate through the media and through generally open political campaigning

Freedom House's term "electoral democracy" differs from liberal democracy in that the latter also implies the presence of a substantial array of civil liberties. In the survey, all Free countries qualify as both electoral and liberal democracies. By contrast, some Partly Free countries qualify as electoral, but not liberal, democracies.^*

Survey data and introductory essay are available online. Detailed descriptions of all nations can be found online in Freedom in the World 2005.

See Also: Freedom House

PR - Political Rights CL - Civil Liberties

Sub-Saharan Africa

Americas

Asia-Pacific

Central & Eastern Europe & the former Soviet Union

Western Europe

Middle East & North Africa

Related/Disputed Territories