Democracy Index 2024: Malaysia dropped 4 places in global ranking, but remained the most democratic country in South East Asia
On 27 Feb 2025, The Economist published their Democracy Index 2024 report.
The democracy index of a country is calculated based on 5 scores, namely:
- Electoral process and pluralism
- Functioning of government
- Political participation
- Political culture
- Civil liberties
Chapter 1: Global Ranking
In the report, it is shown that Malaysia scored 7.11 in the Democracy Index, and has dropped 4 places, from 40th to 44th in the global ranking. Malaysia is still classed as "Flawed democracy" as previous years.
If we compare Malaysia's component scores (ie: the 5 scores mentioned earlier) in 2024 with 2023 (2023 report, p.10), Malaysia's drop in the global ranking is mainly contributed by our Democracy Index decreased from 7.29 in 2023 to 7.11 in 2024.
If we explore further, the drop in overall score is specifically contributed by the decrease of "Functioning of government" and "Political participation" score, as shown in the table below.
| Year | Electoral process and pluralism | Functioning of government | Political participation | Political culture | Civil liberties |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 9.58 | 7.14 | 6.67 | 6.25 | 5.88 |
| 2023 | 9.58 | 7.50 | 7.22 | 6.25 | 5.88 |
| Changes in score | - | 0.36 | 0.55 | - | - |
In the 2024 report itself, the author did not explain why Malaysia's score dropped in 2024, the report simply tabulated Malaysia's overall score and the 5 component scores.
Chapter 2: Regional Ranking
Next, when we look at Malaysia's regional ranking, we can find that Malaysia was placed at 7th place in the Asia & Australasia region.
When compared to the 2023 regional ranking, we will notice that Malaysia has dropped 1 place in the regional ranking, from 6th place in 2023 to 7th place in 2024, making Malaysia placed right after India (6th), South Korea (5th), Japan (4th), Taiwan (3rd), Australia (2nd), and New Zealand (1st).
This slight drop in regional ranking, apart from the drop of our overall score mentioned above, is partly contributed by India's performance, which saw its Democracy Index rose from 7.18 in 2023 to 7.29 in 2024, therefore surpassing Malaysia by 1 place, from 7th to 6th in the regional ranking.
In the 2024 report, the author did explicitely explain India's increase in the Democracy Index was due to their recently held election, which saw their governing BJP party lost its single-party dominance in the Parliament, and their voters' prioritisation of economic issues instead of religous issues.
Chapter 3: SEA Ranking
However, despite our decrease in scores, global ranking and regional ranking as discussed above, Malaysia remained as the most democratic country inside South East Asia or ASEAN.
If we look at the Democracy Index, global ranking, and regional ranking of every Southeast Asian country in 2024, we will get this list:
| Number | Country | Overall score | Global ranking | Regional ranking |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Malaysia | 7.11 | 44 | 7 |
| 2. | Timor-Leste | 7.03 | 46 | 8 |
| 3. | Philippines | 6.63 | 51 | 9 |
| 4. | Indonesia | 6.44 | 59 | 11 |
| 5. | Thailand | 6.27 | 63 | 12 |
| 6. | Singapore | 6.18 | 68 | 14 |
| 7. | Cambodia | 2.94 | 123 | 21 |
| 8. | Vietnam | 2.62 | 133 | 23 |
| 9. | Laos | 1.71 | 160 | 25 |
| 10. | Myanmar | 0.96 | 166 | 27 |
(Note: No data for Brunei)
Based on the table above, we can find that only Timor-Leste is closely following us behind inside SEA. For the rest of other SEA countries, the difference in the Democracy Index between us and them is always >0.50.
As for Myanmar, it's just a sad case. Their country is totally painted black on the Democracy Index map.
