Countries With the Lowest Freedom From Party Bans

Every country with a figure for freedom from party bans, ranked from lowest to highest. The top three are Viet Nam (-3.65), Lao PDR (-3.52) and Cuba (-3.52). The middle country of the 176 has 1.23.

What this measures

Party bans (higher = fewer parties banned), in score (higher = fewer bans). Source: V-Dem Institute, University of Gothenburg. For this measure, higher is better.

Are any political parties banned? Experts answer from 0 ("all parties except the state-sponsored party are banned", a one-party state) to 4 ("no parties are officially banned"). V-Dem turns the answers into a score of about -4 to +4. Parties kept off the ballot for missing registration rules do not count as banned. It is one of the parts of V-Dem's freedom of association index, so the two are linked by construction.

The full ranking

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

More on freedom from party bans

• Countries With the Highest Freedom From Party Bans
• Freedom from party bans 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.