VDem

VDem, short for Varieties of Democracy, is an international research project and data platform that seeks to measure democracy across countries and over time in a multi-dimensional way. Based at the V-Dem Institute at the University of Gothenburg, with collaboration from scholars around the world, it provides a large set of indicators intended to capture the different forms and practices that constitute democracy rather than relying on a single binary score.

Data are assembled from expert judgments collected from country specialists who answer standardized questions about dozens of democracy-related indicators—spanning electoral processes, civil liberties, rule of law, governmental checks and balances, and participation. To enhance reliability, multiple judges contribute for most country-years, and the project uses Bayesian multilevel modeling to estimate latent democracy scores and calibrate indicators onto common scales. The result is a suite of country-year observations that cover a long historical span for many countries and a wide range of political contexts.

VDem produces multiple aggregated indices in addition to hundreds of indicators. The five global democracy indices are liberal democracy, electoral democracy, participatory democracy, deliberative democracy, and egalitarian democracy, along with numerous sub-indicators and sub-national comparisons. The data are updated annually and are widely used in academic research, policy analysis, and public debate.

Access and usage: VDem data are freely available for research and teaching, with documentation, codebooks, and methodological papers to explain the indicators and modeling. Users should note limitations, including potential expert bias, coding challenges across contexts, and methodological choices in aggregation. The project emphasizes transparency and replication, inviting feedback from researchers and practitioners.