Global democracy has suffered a significant regression over the past year, according to our latest annual Democracy Index published today. The Index– which assesses the state of democracy in 165 independent states and two territories in 2017 – has recorded the worst performance since the aftermath of the global financial and economic crisis in 2010. Not a single region recorded an improvement in its average score in 2017 compared with 2016.

One contributing factor to this has been a marked decline in media freedoms and curbs on free speech, through growing threats of government repression and new challenges from non-state actors. This year’s Democracy Index report has a special focus on media freedom and includes a new Media Freedom Index and global ranking.

Key findings from the report include:

• Deepening political, social and cultural divisions are becoming entrenched in many of the world’s democracies
• Asia experienced the biggest democratic decline of all the seven regions
• Spain has retained its status as a "full democracy", but its score fell sharply, in part because of the national government’s handling of the Catalonia crisis
• Nordic countries occupy the top three spots of the ranking, with North Korea in last place

Report by The Economist