Countries With the Highest Ease of Forming a Party

Every country with a figure for ease of forming a party, ranked from highest to lowest. The top three are United States (2.95), Costa Rica (2.81) and Sweden (2.76). The middle country of the 176 has 1.41.

What this measures

Barriers to forming a party (higher = fewer barriers), in score (higher = fewer barriers). Source: V-Dem Institute, University of Gothenburg. For this measure, higher is better.

How hard is it to start a new party? Experts answer from 0 ("parties are not allowed") to 4 ("no substantial barriers"), counting both legal hurdles such as deposits and membership rules and harassment of party leaders. V-Dem turns the answers into a score of about -4 to +4. A part of V-Dem's freedom of association index.

The full ranking

Each country’s latest figure, from 2025–2025. The year beside each value says when it was measured.

More on ease of forming a party

• Countries With the Lowest Ease of Forming a Party
• Ease of forming a party by country: trend over time and what it goes with

Related rankings

• Countries With the Highest Corruption Perceptions Index
• Countries With the Highest Political Rights (FH)
• Countries With the Highest Civil Liberties (FH)
• Countries With the Highest Legal System and Property Rights (Fraser)
• Countries With the Highest Trust in Government
• Countries With the Highest Pre-trial Detainee Shares
• Countries With the Highest Refugees Originating
• Countries With the Highest Electoral Democracy

A ranking describes countries, not the people in them, and a high or low place does not by itself say why. All country rankings.