In Numbers
Global Summary: civic space dynamics
Civic space ratings have changed for 18 countries since our last report in December 2023. Conditions for civil society have deteriorated in nine countries – Burkina Faso, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Georgia, Kenya, Mongolia, the Netherlands, the Occupied Palestine Territories (OPT) and Peru – while conditions improved in nine countries – Bangladesh, Botswana, Fiji, Japan, Jamaica, Liberia, Poland, Slovenia and Trinidad and Tobago.
Only 40 out of 198 countries and territories have an open civic space rating, indicating widespread respect for civic freedoms. In comparison, 81 countries and territories are rated in the worst two categories of having restricted and closed civic space, indicating widespread and routine repression of fundamental freedoms. Some 72.4 percent of the global population lives under these repressive conditions. Almost 30 percent lives in countries where civic space is completely closed.
Compared with last year, an additional 1.5 percentage points of the global population now lives in a repressed or closed country. However, despite the overall negative trends, four countries – Japan, Jamaica, Slovenia and Trinidad and Tobago – have moved into the highest category of having open civic space.
