DEMOCRACYS.ORG / COUNTRY BRIEF
Afghanistan
Institutions and political conditions · 2025
#179of 179 places
−35.8points since 2015
4.2–8.9source-bound score area*
What the score says
Afghanistan scores 7.1 on the Democracys Standard. Its score was 42.9 in 2015, a fall of 35.8 points. The lowest-scoring dimension in 2025 is public reasoning (3.3).
What drove the change?
The score for Afghanistan fell 35.8 points, from 42.9 to 7.1 between 2015 and 2025. All five areas declined. Public reasoning contributed the largest downward push in the score calculation. The latest year moved in the opposite direction (+1.1), so the longer trend is not the whole story.
This explains movement within the formula, not the causal effect of political events.
2024 context · Freedom House assessment
Women’s access to public life narrowed further
The Taliban expanded restrictions on women’s movement and appearance through its morality rules, then barred women from medical training. These measures concern who can study, work, and participate in society—not just whether elections take place. They help explain the institutional constraints behind a low score, without allocating points to any single decree.
Read the country report · Freedom in the World 2025AI-assisted source summary · not independently expert-reviewed
What this context does—and does not—explain
This is a selected development, not a complete political history. Its date may differ from the selected comparison period. It is not evidence that one event caused a particular number of points, and it may describe progress even when this index declines.
The scores use V-Dem. The narrative summarizes a separate assessment by Freedom House, whose definitions and coverage differ. Neither organization endorses this website. The summary is AI-assisted, source-linked, and has not received independent country-expert review. Source checked October 5, 2026.
Why democracy measures can disagree →Look beneath the headline
| Democracy test | 2025 | Since 2015 |
|---|---|---|
| Free and fair elections | 6.9 | −27.9 |
| Rights and checks on power | 5.5 | −38.8 |
| Public participation | 18.4 | −9.0 |
| Public reasoning | 3.3 | −66.1 |
| Political equality | 4.8 | −39.0 |
Dimension movements are not additive contributions to the overall score. The method also accounts for weak areas.
Three questions worth investigating
- Do leaders explain decisions, consult the public, answer opposing arguments, and consider the common good?
- Which documented changes in laws, institutions, or their implementation occurred during the period?
- What evidence challenges your explanation, and whose experience is missing?
Use primary records and country expertise. A change in an estimate alone does not identify its cause.
Read with care
This is an independent educational beta, not a V-Dem endorsement. Scores are not percentages of democracy or judgments about a people. Small differences may be within uncertainty. *The score area is obtained from source bounds; it is not a formal confidence interval for this composite or its change.