Is worldwide democracy in decline? According to research by Our World In Data, yes. Bastian Herre, a researcher at the organization, writes that no matter how you measure it, democracy is declining substantially across the globe — but that the extent of the change is also "uncertain and limited".

Herre analyzed data on how many of the world's countries are democracies or autocracies (governed by one person with absolute power), how many people are living in democracies, and the number of countries that are becoming more or less democratic over time — and visualized them in the interactive graphs below.

Ninety-seven democracies were counted across the globe in 2012 — an all-time high in the number of democratic countries worldwide. In the decade since, however, this figure has dropped to 89.

While the number of electorally democratic countries rose from 53 to 55 between 2012 and 2021, liberal democracies worldwide have decreased from 34 to 42 in the same period.

Significantly fewer people are enjoying democratic rights now than they were just a few years ago. The number of people living in democratic countries has plummeted from 3.9 billion in 2017 to 2.3 billion in 2021.

This doesn't mean we should feel hopeless, though. As Herre points out, global democracy has declined numerous times throughout history, and those declines have been reversed. Granted, it takes a lot of dedication and hard work to make the world a fairer place — but, as we've seen before, it's possible.

Via Our World In Data.