Freedom in the World is an annual global report on political rights and civil liberties, composed of numerical ratings and descriptive texts for each country and a select group of territories. The 2022 edition covers developments in 195 countries and 15 territories from January 1, 2021, through December 31, 2021.
The report's methodology is derived in large measure from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1948. Freedom in the World is based on the premise that these standards apply to all countries and territories, irrespective of geographical location, ethnic or religious composition, or level of economic development. Freedom in the World operates from the assumption that freedom for all people is best achieved in liberal democratic societies.
Freedom in the World assesses the real-world rights and freedoms enjoyed by individuals, rather than governments or government performance per se. Political rights and civil liberties can be affected by both state and non-state actors, including insurgents and other armed groups. To read more about the methodology used by Freedom House, please visit https://freedomhouse.org/reports/freedom-world/freedom-world-research-methodology. These subcategories, drawn from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, represent the fundamental components of freedom, which include an individual's ability to:
Note: The 1982 edition of Freedom in the World covers the period Jan 1981 - Aug 1982 (=1981 in our dataset). The 1983-84 edition covers the period Aug 1982 - Nov 1983 (=1983 in our dataset). This leaves 1982 empty. For 1972, South Africa was in the original data rated as 'White' (fh_cl: 3, fh_pr: 2, fh_status: Free) and 'Black' (fh_cl: 6, fh_pr: 5, fh_status: Not Free). We treat South Africa 1972 as missing.
Freedom on the Net is a Freedom House project consisting of cutting-edge analysis, fact-based advocacy, and on-the-ground capacity building. It features a ranked, country-by-country assessment of online freedom, a global overview of the latest developments, as well as in depth country reports. Freedom on the Net measures the subtle and not-so-subtle ways that governments and non-state actors around the world restrict our intrinsic rights online. Each country assessment includes a detailed narrative report and numerical scores, based on methodology developed in consultation with international experts. This methodology includes three categories:
Freedom of the Press, an annual report on media independence around the world, was published between 1980 and 2017, and assessed the degree of print, broadcast, and digital media freedom in 199 countries and territories. It provided numerical scores and country narratives evaluating the legal environment for the media, political pressures that influenced reporting, and economic factors that affected access to news and information.
Note: The number in the variable names indicate what time period they refer to.
1: 1979-1987
2: 1988-1992
3: 1993-1995
4: 1996-2000
5: 2001-2016