Countries With the Lowest Ease of Forming a Party

Every country with a figure for ease of forming a party, ranked from lowest to highest. The top three are Saudi Arabia (-3.83), Qatar (-3.69) and Eswatini (-3.23). 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 Highest 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 Lowest Corruption Perceptions Index
• Countries With the Lowest Political Rights (FH)
• Countries With the Lowest Civil Liberties (FH)
• Countries With the Lowest Legal System and Property Rights (Fraser)
• Countries With the Lowest Trust in Government
• Countries With the Lowest Pre-trial Detainee Shares
• Countries With the Lowest Refugees Originating
• Countries With the Lowest 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.