DEMOCRACYS.ORG / COUNTRY BRIEF
Mauritania
Institutions and political conditions · 2025
#124of 179 places
+2.4points since 2015
30.4–45.9source-bound score area*
What the score says
Mauritania scores 38.1 on the Democracys Standard. Its score was 35.7 in 2015, a rise of 2.4 points. The lowest-scoring dimension in 2025 is rights and checks on power (24.9).
What drove the change?
The score for Mauritania rose 2.4 points, from 35.7 to 38.1 between 2015 and 2025. 2 of the five areas improved while 3 worsened, so the headline combines competing movements. Participation contributed the largest upward 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.
2025 context · Freedom House assessment
A national-symbols law was used against online dissent
Authorities intensified enforcement of a law protecting national symbols against critical online speech. Freedom House links this to reduced willingness to speak openly. The democratic effect is not limited to people prosecuted: a credible threat of punishment can also silence others before they participate.
Read the country report · Freedom in the World 2026AI-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 | 32.8 | −10.3 |
| Rights and checks on power | 24.9 | −4.4 |
| Public participation | 53.1 | +24.7 |
| Public reasoning | 55.5 | +5.3 |
| Political equality | 29.2 | −0.7 |
Dimension movements are not additive contributions to the overall score. The method also accounts for weak areas.
Three questions worth investigating
- Are basic freedoms protected, laws applied fairly, courts independent, and leaders prevented from abusing power?
- 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.