Across 152 countries, Equality score and Participatory democracy rise and fall together at r = +0.26 (on a scale from −1 to +1, where 0 means no link). Comparing only countries with similar income (GDP per person) flips the link to -0.22 (q = 0.0034, allowing for the many pairs tested). The first figure pointed the other way only as richer and poorer countries differ.
Comparing countries across the middle half of participatory democracy, 0.165 to 0.491 points, equality score is better by 0.369 typical gaps at the top of that range than the bottom. Comparing only countries with similar national income, the gap reverses, to 0.274 typical gaps the other way.
Link before adjusting (r)+0.263p = 0.001 · 152 countries
After adjusting for national income-0.221p = 0.006 · likely range [-0.37, -0.06]
p, allowing for regions0.106standard error 0.116 · 7 regions
Check for luck (q)0.003across 12,497 pairs
How to read these.r runs from −1 (one goes up as the other goes down) to +1 (they rise together), and 0 means no link. Adjusting for national income means comparing countries with the same GDP per person, so differences in wealth can’t explain the link. Income is used in percentage terms, since an extra $1,000 means more to a poor country than to a rich one. p is how likely a link this strong would be if there were really none. Below 0.05 means it is unlikely to be chance. Very small values are written in short form: 1.1e-32 means a decimal point followed by 31 zeros and then 11, so very close to zero. The likely range is where the true figure probably lies, and a range that crosses zero means the link could easily be chance. Countries in the same region tend to resemble each other, so the third figure allows for that, which gives a fairer p. The standard error is the typical size of the error in r. Finally, testing this many pairs means some will look strong by luck alone. A q below 0.05 means this link is unlikely to be one of those.
Equality score · typical gaps (standard deviations)link with income +0.64 · high
Participatory democracy · index (0-1)link with income +0.47 · moderate
“Link with income” is how closely each measure tracks GDP per person across countries, from −1 to +1.
Every country as a dot
best-fit line line after adjusting
Four ways to measure the link
Method
r
p
Countries
Standard (Pearson), not adjusted
+0.263
0.001
152
By rank (Spearman), not adjusted
+0.253
0.002
152
Standard (Pearson), adjusted for national income
-0.221
0.006
152
By rank (Spearman), adjusted for national income
-0.248
0.002
152
The rank version uses only each country’s place in line, from lowest to highest, so a few extreme countries count for less. The adjusted and unadjusted versions use the same 152 countries: those that report both measures and GDP per person. So the gap between them comes from the adjustment, not from a change in which countries are counted. Drop in the size of r after adjusting: +0.043 (a minus sign means it grew).
How solid is it?
Leaving out one country at a time, r ranges from -0.256 (without SWZ) to -0.207 (without BLR). The bar above shows that range on a scale from −1 to +1, with the solid line at the full result. The single country that moves r most: SWZ (-0.035).
Within each region
Countries are not separate, unrelated cases, and neighbors share a lot. A link that holds inside each region is far more believable than one that shows up only when comparing regions.
n
r
East Asia & Pacific
16
-0.52
Europe & Central Asia
47
+0.04
Latin America & Caribbean
21
-0.05
Middle East, North Africa, Afghanistan & Pakistan
15
-0.22
Sub-Saharan Africa
45
-0.09
By income third
If the link shows up only in the richest third of countries, it is a feature of rich countries, not a general pattern.
n
r
Poorest third
51
-0.13
Middle third
50
-0.34
Richest third
51
-0.08
By largest religious group
Countries grouped by a label they share, such as main religion, rather than by a number. Groups of fewer than twelve countries are not shown. These groups differ in income, region and history all at once. So a gap between them is a place to start asking questions, not an answer.
n
r
Christians
96
-0.07
Muslims
39
-0.22
By last european coloniser
Countries grouped by a label they share, such as main religion, rather than by a number. Groups of fewer than twelve countries are not shown. These groups differ in income, region and history all at once. So a gap between them is a place to start asking questions, not an answer.
n
r
France
24
-0.04
Never a European colony
16
+0.10
Spain
19
-0.18
United Kingdom
40
-0.23
Without outliers (countries far outside the middle half of countries on either measure, by more than one and a half times the width of that middle half): r = -0.199 after dropping 4 countries.
Two series, one country
Both measures over the years for one country you pick. The two charts are stacked so they share only the years along the bottom.
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Over time, within countries
Everything above compares countries with each other at one moment. This section compares each country only with itself over 0years. So a link here can’t come from anything about a country that stays the same, such as its history, geography, institutions or culture.
Not enough history inside each country to look at this over time. That needs countries measured for several years in a row, and at least one of these measures is measured too rarely.
The data
typical gaps (standard deviations)
index (0-1)
Years
Slovak Republic SVK
1.06
0.508
2023, 2025
Belarus BLR
1.04
0.054
2020, 2025
Slovenia SVN
1.02
0.506
2023, 2025
Ukraine UKR
0.967
0.252
2020, 2025
Czechia CZE
0.961
0.562
2023, 2025
Netherlands NLD
0.958
0.553
2021, 2025
United Arab Emirates ARE
0.921
0.031
2018, 2025
Norway NOR
0.91
0.638
2023, 2025
Moldova MDA
0.895
0.389
2023, 2025
Iceland ISL
0.895
0.565
2019, 2025
Belgium BEL
0.895
0.633
2023, 2025
Finland FIN
0.858
0.597
2023, 2025
Algeria DZA
0.852
0.095
2011, 2025
Armenia ARM
0.843
0.319
2024, 2025
India IND
0.836
0.246
2022, 2025
wdi Coppedge, M. et al., V-Dem Dataset, Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) Project
PlaceStats · via PlaceStats · Derived work; each member keeps its own licence · updated recomputed with the panel
The average of 2 measures from 1 publisher. Each measure is first put on a common scale: 0 is the average country in an average year, and 1 is a typical gap between countries (a standard deviation). Each is turned so that higher is better. Measures are averaged within each publisher first, so a publisher with many measures does not count for more. Members: Extreme poverty rate, Gini index.
V-Dem Institute, University of Gothenburg · via Our World in Data · CC BY 4.0 · updated annual
Electoral democracy plus direct participation: people's involvement in civic groups, referendums, and elected local and regional government.
How this was computed
Data used: most recent value in 2010-2025; values come from 2010–2025. To adjust for income, each measure is first predicted from GDP per person (in percentage terms, on a log scale) with a straight-line fit. Only what is left over is then compared. This is called a partial correlation. The line is drawn the standard way (ordinary least squares), which picks the line that comes closest to all the countries at once. The error margins allow for countries in the same region resembling each other, using 7 World Bank regions. The q-value corrects for testing all 12,497 pairs at once, using the Benjamini–Hochberg method. Underlying data last updated DYB 2024. How the country data works · explore Equality score and Participatory democracy
This page shows that two measures go together. It does not show that Equality score changes Participatory democracy, or the reverse. These figures also describe countries, not individual people. See the ecological fallacy.
More links with Equality score or Participatory democracy