Interactive World Map
Use our interactive world map to visualize academic freedom in 2023 and learn more about the development of academic freedom in specific countries. Click on a country of interest to visualize its state of academic freedom today, and find out which dimensions of academic freedom are improving and declining.
Data Download
The Academic Freedom Index data is curated in the V-Dem dataset, which includes the world’s most comprehensive and detailed democracy ratings, as well as the AFI data. The latest version of the dataset and associated reference documents can be downloaded free of charge at the V-Dem website (pp. 238-243 & 322 Codebook).
Alternatively, you can download a pre-processed data file for the Academic Freedom Index from this website. This AFI core dataset contains country-year data for the AFI as well as its indicators. It is a user-friendly version for those only interested in academic freedom data.
Citation
All AFI data and graphs generated by our online tools are open source and free for anyone to use. You do not need to seek permission to use the data, but we kindly ask you to cite the data and the AFI approach:
Coppedge, Michael, John Gerring, Carl Henrik Knutsen, Staffan I. Lindberg, Jan Teorell, David Altman, Michael Bernhard et al. 2024. “V-Dem [Country-Year/Country-Date] Dataset v14” Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) Project. https://doi.org/10.23696/vdemds24 .
Spannagel, J., & Kinzelbach, K. (2023). The Academic Freedom Index and its indicators: Introduction to new global time-series V-Dem data. Quality & Quantity, 57: 3969–3989. doi:10.1007/s11135-022-01544-0
Further Questions?
V-Dem and the AFI project team are committed to full transparency and we are constantly working to improve our data and methods. Please get in touch with any questions regarding our datasets.
V-Dem Graphing Tools
Use the V-Dem graphing tools to visualize the Academic Freedom Index data. The V-Dem Graphing Tools platform makes data visualization intuitive, accessible, and easy to use. The available tools are specially designed to visualize V-Dem data in various formats, depending on your needs and interests.