The Economist Intelligence Unit’s Democracy Index 2018, released in January 2019, ranks Mauritius 1st in Africa and 17th worldwide.

In this year’s report, which covers the period 2017-2018, a total of 165 independent states and two territories (covering almost the entire population of the world) were assessed. The Democracy Index made the assessment according to five criteria, namely: electoral process and pluralism; civil liberties; the functioning of government; political participation; and political culture. Based on the scores obtained, each country / territory has been classified into either one of four regime categories: “full democracy", “flawed democracy", “hybrid regime" and “authoritarian regime".

Mauritius attained an overall score of 8.22 points and is qualified as a “Full Democracy". Only 20 countries worldwide belong to this category and Mauritius is the only country in the African region to be classified as a “full democracy". Others in this category include the developed OECD countries of Europe and North America, two Australian countries (New Zealand and Australia) and two Latin American countries (Uruguay and Costa Rica). It is noted that Mauritius ranks ahead of the United States (25th), France (29th), India (41st) and China (130th). The three countries at the very top of the Index are Norway (9.87 points), Iceland (9.58) and Sweden (9.39).

In the Sub-Saharan Africa region, Mauritius leads the top 10 list and is followed by Cabo Verde (7.88 points), Botswana (7.81). South Africa (7.24) and Lesotho (6.64), Ghana (6.63), Namibia (6.25), Senegal (6.15), Benin (5.74) and Zambia (5.61).

According to the report, only 47.7% of the world’s population live in some form of democracy, and a tiny percentage of 4.5% live in a full democracy. Globally, it is observed that for the first time in three years the Democracy Index did not deteriorate, but there was no progress either.

The full Democracy Index 2018 can be accessed from the EIUs’ website after registration.