DEMOCRACYS.ORG / COUNTRY BRIEF
Zanzibar
Institutions and political conditions · 2025
#106of 179 places
−4.4points since 2015
42.1–57.8source-bound score area*
What the score says
Zanzibar scores 49.9 on the Democracys Standard. Its score was 54.3 in 2015, a fall of 4.4 points. The lowest-scoring dimension in 2025 is free and fair elections (30.9).
What drove the change?
The score for Zanzibar fell 4.4 points, from 54.3 to 49.9 between 2015 and 2025. 2 of the five areas improved while 3 worsened, so the headline combines competing movements. Participation contributed the largest downward push in the score calculation.
This explains movement within the formula, not the causal effect of political events.
2020 context · Freedom House assessment
The last fully described Zanzibar election faced coercion allegations
Freedom House’s Tanzania report describes an opposition candidate’s detention during Zanzibar’s 2020 election and allegations of violence before and after voting. This is historical context specific to Zanzibar, not a description of the whole country or a verified explanation of its 2025 score. A newer standalone narrative is not available in this source set.
Read the country report · Freedom in the World 2025AI-assisted source summary · not independently expert-reviewed
Coverage limitation: this source assesses Tanzania as a whole. Only its explicitly Zanzibar-specific historical account is summarized here. It does not establish the causes of Zanzibar’s latest score changes.
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 | 30.9 | +1.0 |
| Rights and checks on power | 65.3 | +4.7 |
| Public participation | 39.9 | −10.3 |
| Public reasoning | 55.9 | −11.0 |
| Political equality | 62.4 | −7.2 |
Dimension movements are not additive contributions to the overall score. The method also accounts for weak areas.
Three questions worth investigating
- Can people choose their leaders through broad voting rights, honest elections, free political groups, and open public debate?
- 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.