The 1999 Freedom House Survey: A Century of Progress

In 2021, autocrats’ efforts to reshape the global order enabled heavier repression and brazen power grabs, while democracies faltered. Is this a tipping point?

Promising advances in the status of freedom in the world during the past year have been matched by significant disappointments.

The past decade began at a high point for freedom but ended with freedom in peril. Yet the setbacks of the last five years do not outweigh the democratic gains…