Liberal democracies are often free
Comparing Free country with Key features of liberal democracy, gaps filled across 172 countries, 2025–2025.
- Rank correlation
- +0.90
- Holding size constant
- +0.88
- Countries compared
- 172
- Period
- 2025–2025
What might link these
The strong correlation between key features of liberal democracy and freedom may be due to the underlying principles of democracy that prioritize individual rights and freedoms. A careful reader should be cautious about assuming causation and consider the potential influence of education, which could be a likely confounder. The relationship might also be influenced by cultural and historical factors.
Why this is not proof of anything
This is a correlation across countries, not an experiment. It cannot show that either indicator causes the other, and both may simply follow a third thing. This correlation could mislead by implying a direct causal link between liberal democracy and freedom, when in fact other factors may be driving the relationship.
The second figure above repeats the measurement with national population and income held constant. It is the more conservative number: a relationship that largely disappears there was mostly telling you that larger, richer countries have more of most things.
How this was measured
Both indicators were ranked across every country reporting each, and the two rankings compared — ranks rather than raw values, because a handful of very large countries can otherwise manufacture a relationship on their own. The calculation is arithmetic over figures already published on this site; the commentary above is drafted from the two indicator names and the resulting coefficients.