Democracy in Latin America and the Caribbean: A Compilation of Selected Indices

Contents

• Introduction
• Democracy Indices and Source Notes
• Bertelsmann Transformation Index (BTI)
• Economist Intelligence Unit's (EIU)'s Democracy Index
• Freedom House's Freedom in the World
• Varieties of Democracy Institute (V-Dem)'s Liberal Democracy Index
• Compilation of Democracy Indicators
• Selected Resources

Summary

This report provides a regional snapshot of the state of democracy in Latin America and the Caribbean, based on selected nongovernmental indices that measure democracy worldwide. Using tables and graphs to illustrate regional trends, this report provides a snapshot of democracy indicators from the following sources: (1) Bertelsmann Stiftung's 2026 Bertelsmann Transformation Index (BTI); (2) the Economist Intelligence Unit's (EIU's) Democracy Index 2025; (3) Freedom House's Freedom in the World 2026; and (4) the Varieties of Democracy Institute's (V-Dem's) Liberal Democracy Index in its Democracy Report 2026. Additional resources appear at the end of the report.

Introduction

For decades, U.S. policy has broadly reflected the view that the spread of democracy around the world is favorable to U.S. interests. The current trajectory of democracy around the world is an issue of interest for Congress, which has generally supported U.S. democracy promotion efforts. This report provides a regional snapshot of the state of democracy in Latin America and the Caribbean based on selected nongovernmental organizations' (NGOs') indices that measure democracy worldwide.

For additional information on democracy in the global context, see the following products:

• CRS Report R47890, Democracy and Human Rights in U.S. Foreign Policy: Evolution, Tools, and Considerations for Congress, by Michael A. Weber.
• CRS In Focus IF10795, Global Human Rights: The Department of State's Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, by Michael A. Weber.

For related information about democracy in Latin American and the Caribbean, see the following products:

• CRS Report R48960, U.S. Foreign Policy in the Western Hemisphere: Issues for Congress, coordinated by Peter J. Meyer, Joshua Klein, and Kyla H. Kitamura.
• CRS In Focus IF12876, Western Hemisphere: Issues for the 119th Congress, by Peter J. Meyer.
• CRS Report 98-684, Latin America and the Caribbean: Fact Sheet on Leaders and Elections, by Carla Y. Davis-Castro.

CRS also publishes reports on specific Latin American and Caribbean countries.

Democracy Indices and Source Notes

This report compiles information from the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) and data from the most recent findings of four NGOs' democracy indices, which are each discussed briefly below. Findings from these indices cover developments during calendar year 2025 or earlier and do not reflect more recent events. CRS does not endorse the methodology or accuracy of any particular democracy index. Findings and scores for particular countries may vary across indices for a variety of reasons, including differing coverage periods, methodologies, and subjective expert assessments. (For a discussion about definitions of democracy and critiques of democracy indices, see [archived] CRS Report R45344, Global Trends in Democracy: Background, U.S. Policy, and Issues for Congress, by Michael A. Weber.)

The following indices are discussed below: (1) Bertelsmann Stiftung's 2026 Bertelsmann Transformation Index (BTI); (2) the Economist Intelligence Unit's (EIU's) Democracy Index 2025; (3) Freedom House's Freedom in the World 2026; and (4) the Varieties of Democracy Institute's (V-Dem's) Liberal Democracy Index in its Democracy Report 2026.

Bertelsmann Transformation Index (BTI)

Bertelsmann Stiftung, a private foundation based in Germany, has published the Bertelsmann Transformation Index (BTI) biannually since 2006. BTI 2026 reviewed the period of February 2023 through January 2025 with global, regional, and country reports that evaluated the state of democracy, the economy, and governance in 137 countries. (It excluded countries that were members of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development by the year 1989, considered to be "long-consolidated democratic systems and in which economic development can be regarded as well-advanced.")¹ The BTI ranked countries' political transformation using five criteria: (1) stateness, (2) political participation, (3) rule of law, (4) stability of democratic institutions, and (5) political and social integration.² The political transformation criteria also determine each country's classification: democracy in consolidation, defective democracy, highly defective democracy, moderate autocracy, or hardline autocracy.³ BTI evaluates all Central and South American nations except for Belize, Guyana, and Suriname. Among Caribbean nations, BTI evaluates Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, and Trinidad and Tobago.

In its 2026 regional report, BTI found that "democratic and economic transformation, as well as the quality of governance … showed no pronounced trend during the review period [February 2023 through January 2025].… [O]verall, developments since February 2023 point to either stagnation or continuity, depending on perspective."⁵ The report added that "no country experienced a regime shift toward democracy or autocracy during the review period, though Guatemala's trajectory improved" from a hardline autocracy to a moderate autocracy.⁶ Meanwhile, "the steepest democratic decline occurred in the moderate autocracy of El Salvador."⁷ In its global report, BTI highlighted that, of all the states under review "today, 56% are governed autocratically," and "two-thirds of the countries assessed since 2006 are now less democratic than they were 20 years ago."⁸ At the same time, the same global report noted "improvements in strategic prioritization, implementation and policy learning are particularly visible in countries such as Brazil … and Guatemala."⁹

Figure 1 shows the global rank and classification of all Central and South American and Caribbean countries according to the Political Transformation Rank, a component of the 2026 Bertelsmann Stiftung Transformation Index (BTI).

Figure 1. BTI's 2026 Political Transformation Global Ranking of Latin American and Caribbean Countries

Source: Created by CRS using Bertelsmann Stiftung's 2026 Transformation Index.

Economist Intelligence Unit's (EIU)'s Democracy Index

The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), based in London and New York, has produced a democracy index since 2006.¹⁰ The most recent report provided an annual snapshot of the state of democracy for 165 independent states and two territories.¹¹ The EIU classified countries as full democracies, flawed democracies, hybrid regimes, or authoritarian regimes based on an aggregate score of 60 indicators in five categories: (1) electoral process and pluralism, (2) civil liberties, (3) the functioning of government, (4) political participation, and (5) political culture.¹² EIU evaluated Mexico and all Central and South American nations. With respect to the Caribbean, EIU looked at Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago.

Please note that the summary report of EIU's Democracy Index 2025 can be freely downloaded, but the full report may require a subscription.

According to the EIU's Democracy Index 2025 summary report, covering calendar year 2025, the Latin America and Caribbean region's average score rose to 5.71 from 5.61 after nine years of declining scores.¹⁴ Specifically, EIU found that 13 out of 24 countries recorded score improvements.¹⁵ EIU reported that the "most important positive regional development in 2025" occurred in Bolivia, putting it in the top five countries worldwide with the biggest score improvements from 2024 to 2025 along with Argentina.¹⁶ On the other hand, Colombia registered "the steepest score decline in 2025."¹⁷

Figure 2 shows the global rank and classification of Central and South American and Caribbean countries according to the EIU's full report on the Democracy Index 2025.

Figure 2. EIU's Democracy Index 2025 Global Ranking for Latin American and Caribbean Countries

Source: Created by CRS using EIU's Democracy Index 2025 (full report).

Freedom House's Freedom in the World

Freedom House is a U.S.-based NGO that conducts research on democracy, political freedom, and human rights worldwide. It has published a global report on political rights and civil liberties, now called Freedom in the World, annually since 1972.¹⁸ The 2026 report, which covered calendar year 2025, measured 195 countries and 13 territories, including all Latin American and Caribbean countries.¹⁹ Freedom House assigned each country 0 to 4 points on 25 different indicators—10 indicators for political rights and 15 indicators for civil liberties—for a total of up to 100 points. The calculation equally weights a country's aggregate political rights and civil liberties scores to determine whether the country has an overall status of free, partly free, or not free.²⁰ The report's analysis was based on data that are not available online but can be requested from Freedom House.²¹ The Freedom House website also listed the current freedom scores with a detailed profile for each assessed country.²²

In 2025, Freedom House classified 23 out of 35 countries in the Americas as "free," a region that includes North America, Central America, South America, and the Caribbean. The report highlighted that "only six countries earned score improvements for the year, while 12 registered score declines."²⁴ According to the report, "El Salvador recorded the region's largest decline in score for the second consecutive year."²⁵ On the other hand, Freedom House determined that Bolivia's rating improved "from Partly Free to Free status, which it last held in 2002."²⁶ Figure 3 shows the aggregate scores of all Central and South American and Caribbean countries according to the relevant Freedom House country web pages for Freedom in the World 2026. The political rights scores and the civil liberties scores, which comprise the aggregate scores, can be found under the Freedom House heading for each country in Table 1, Table 2, and Table 3.

Figure 3. Freedom House's Freedom in the World 2026 Aggregate Scores for Latin American and Caribbean Countries

Source: Created by CRS using Freedom House's Freedom in the World 2026.

Varieties of Democracy Institute (V-Dem)'s Liberal Democracy Index

The Varieties of Democracy Institute (V-Dem), headquartered at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden, collects democracy data through its research team in collaboration with country experts. In 2017, V-Dem published its first global report measuring the status of democracy. V-Dem's Democracy Report 2026 includes the Liberal Democracy Index, which is composed of two parts using formulas that are detailed in the 2026 codebook: the Electoral Democracy Index (46 indicators that examine freedom of expression, freedom of association, percentage of the population with voting rights, elections practices, and selection practices for elected officials) and the Liberal Component Index (20 indicators that examine the structure of the legislature, equality before the law, and individual liberties as well as judicial and legislative constraints on the executive branch).²⁷ V-Dem evaluated Mexico and all Central and South American nations. V-Dem evaluated a subset of Caribbean nations: Barbados, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago.

The V-Dem 2026 report, covering calendar year 2025, grouped 179 countries into four categories according to its Regimes of the World measure: liberal democracy, electoral democracy, electoral autocracy, and closed autocracy.²⁹ In describing the Latin American and the Caribbean population, the report stated that 71% lived in democracies, "making it the second most democratic region," with autocracies accounting for the remaining 29%.³⁰ On the one hand, V-Dem found "four democratizing countries (or 16% of the region): the Dominican Republic, Bolivia, Brazil, and Guatemala," characterizing the last three as "U-turn democratizers—countries that are reversing autocratization."³¹ On the other hand, the report determined that "autocratization continues in six countries (or 24% of the region): Argentina, El Salvador, Haiti, Mexico, Nicaragua, and Peru."³²

Figure 4 shows the liberal democracy index rank and classification of all Central and South American and Caribbean countries according to V-Dem's Democracy Report 2026.

Figure 4. V-Dem's Democracy Report 2026's Liberal Democracy Index Rank for Latin American and Caribbean Countries

Source: Created by CRS using the Varieties of Democracy Institute's Democracy Report 2026.

Compilation of Democracy Indicators

Table 1, below, looks at Caribbean countries' global democracy rankings according to Bertelsmann Stiftung's 2026 Transformation Index, EIU's Democracy Index 2025 (full report), Freedom House's Freedom in the World 2026, and V-Dem's Democracy Report 2026. Table 2 compares the same reports for Mexico and Central America, as does Table 3 for South America. In each table, the country name is followed by parentheses with the nature of the country's political system, as described by the IPU data tools, which categorize political systems.³³ Each report evaluates a different set of countries, leaving inconsistent rankings across the sources in the tables below. Countries are listed alphabetically in each table.

Each index is based on a unique methodology, and the rankings are not necessarily comparable. For more details on the methodologies, see "Democracy Indices and Source Notes" above. For term definitions of each index, see footnote 3 for BTI, footnote 12 for EIU, footnote 20 for Freedom House, and footnote 29 for V-Dem, or consult the full reports.

Selected Resources

Table 4 provides selected resources for further information about democracy indicators for Latin American and Caribbean nations, although many resources cover other geographic areas as well. The sources are organized alphabetically by authoring organization followed by the titles organized chronologically and then alphabetically. This is not an exhaustive list.

Footnotes