Human rights tied to electoral democracy
Comparing Human Rights Index vs. Electoral Democracy Index with Population ages 40-44, female, per unit of GDP across 169 countries, 2025–2025.
- Rank correlation
- -0.58
- Holding size constant
- -0.43
- Countries compared
- 169
- Period
- 2025–2025
What might link these
A possible link between these indicators could be the level of societal stability and respect for individual freedoms, which might be reflected in both human rights and electoral democracy. However, a careful reader should be cautious about potential confounders such as education levels or economic inequality. Education, in particular, could play a significant role in shaping both human rights awareness and democratic participation.
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 relationship between human rights and electoral democracy, when in fact other underlying factors might be driving the observed association.
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.