Worldwide, around 5.6 billion people were living in countries classified as autocracies in 2022. Parts of this is down to the fact that the world's two most populous countries, China and India, who both count around 1.4 billion inhabitants, are classified as a closed autocracy and electoral autocracy, respectively. Similarly, the large increase of people living in autocracies in 2017 is because India was downgraded from an electoral democracy to an electoral autocracy that year.
World population from 1900 to 2022, by regime type of country of residence
(in millions)
The V-Dem Institute defines the different regimes as follows:
Closed autocracy: citizens do not have the right to choose either the chief executive of the government or the legislature through multi-party elections.
Electoral autocracy: citizens have the right to choose the chief executive and the legislature through multi-party elections; but they lack some freedoms, such as the freedoms of association or expression that make the elections meaningful, free, and fair.
Electoral democracy: citizens have the right to choose the chief executive and the legislature in meaningful, free and fair, and multi-party elections.
Liberal democracy: electoral democracy and citizens enjoy individual and minority rights, are equal before the law, and the actions of the executive are constrained by the legislative and the courts.
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OWID. (March 2, 2023). World population from 1900 to 2022, by regime type of country of residence (in millions) [Graph]. In Statista. Retrieved December 22, 2024, from https://www.statista.com/statistics/1379579/people-world-living-democracy-autocracy/
OWID. "World population from 1900 to 2022, by regime type of country of residence (in millions)." Chart. March 2, 2023. Statista. Accessed December 22, 2024. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1379579/people-world-living-democracy-autocracy/
OWID. (2023). World population from 1900 to 2022, by regime type of country of residence (in millions). Statista. Statista Inc.. Accessed: December 22, 2024. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1379579/people-world-living-democracy-autocracy/
OWID. "World Population from 1900 to 2022, by Regime Type of Country of Residence (in Millions)." Statista, Statista Inc., 2 Mar 2023, https://www.statista.com/statistics/1379579/people-world-living-democracy-autocracy/
OWID, World population from 1900 to 2022, by regime type of country of residence (in millions) Statista, https://www.statista.com/statistics/1379579/people-world-living-democracy-autocracy/ (last visited December 22, 2024)
World population from 1900 to 2022, by regime type of country of residence (in millions) [Graph], OWID, March 2, 2023. [Online]. Available: https://www.statista.com/statistics/1379579/people-world-living-democracy-autocracy/