Freedom in the World 2010 Survey Release

On January 12, Freedom House released its findings from the latest edition of Freedom in the World, the annual survey of global political rights and civil liberties. According to the survey’s findings, 2009 marked the fourth consecutive year in which global freedom suffered a decline—the longest consecutive period of setbacks for freedom in the nearly 40-year history of the report. These declines were most pronounced in Sub-Saharan Africa, although they also occurred in most other regions of the world. Furthermore, the erosion in freedom took place during a year marked by intensified repression against human rights defenders and democracy activists by many of the world’s most powerful authoritarian regimes, including Russia and China.

Freedom in the World 2010 reflects developments that took place in the calendar year 2009. The full survey, including the individual country reports, is available here.

• Press Release – Highlights the principal findings from Freedom in the World 2010.
  
• Overview Essay – “Freedom in the World 2010: Erosion of Freedom Intensifies” details the trends identified in Freedom in the World 2010, including global and regional gains and setbacks for freedom.
• Tables and Graphs – Features graphical representations of global and regional breakdowns for freedom, charts tracking the number and percentage of electoral democracies over the last two decades, tables of political rights and civil liberties ratings for each country and territory, and a table listing the total number of Free, Partly Free, and Not Free countries for each year since the survey began in 1972.
• Methodology Summary – Provides an abbreviated description of the methodology used to determine each country and territory’s political rights and civil liberties ratings.
• Checklist Questions – Lists the questions used to determine each country’s political rights and civil liberties ratings.
• Map of Freedom 2010 – This map of the world provides a color-coded graphical representation of the Free, Partly Free, and Not Free countries in 2009.
• Regional Maps of Freedom 2010 – These maps, which are based on the global Map of Freedom, provide color-coded graphical representations of the Free, Partly Free, and Not Free countries in 2009 in the Americas, Asia-Pacific, Sub-Saharan Africa, Middle East and North Africa, and Central and Eastern Europe/Former Soviet Union.
  
  • Map of Freedom: Americas
  • Map of Freedom: Asia-Pacific
  • Map of Freedom: Sub-Saharan Africa
  • Map of Freedom: Middle East and North Africa
  • Map of Freedom: Central and Eastern Europe/Former Soviet Union