US earns its lowest-ever score on freedom index
Washington-based Freedom House said freedom will be eroded around the world for the 20th year in a row in 2025, calling it a “terrible turning point.”
The United States maintained the free rating but dropped to 81 points out of 100; This was the report’s lowest score since it was published in 1972.
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The score placed the United States on par with South Africa and below the United States’ European allies, as well as South Korea and Panama.
Freedom House said the decline in the US was due to “both legislative dysfunction and executive dominance, increased pressure on people’s ability to exercise free speech, and efforts by the new administration to undermine anti-corruption measures.”
Trump has aggressively asserted his power as president by ordering the closure of all government institutions and deploying armed, masked anti-immigration agents across the country, and the White House has promised them impunity. USA fell three points; This decline has only occurred in another “free” country, Bulgaria, whose 2024 elections were marred by allegations of fraud.
Freedom House said that only 21 percent of people overall live in countries considered “free,” with much of the shift occurring in Africa due to military coups, violence against protesters and the weakening of constitutional protections.
Worldwide, over the past two decades, “far more have moved into the ‘not free’ category than have democratized or moved up to that free category,” said Cathryn Grothe, senior research analyst at Freedom House, who co-authored the report.
“The world is becoming less and less free and the middle zone is shrinking, and free countries remain relatively stable,” he said, despite the US’s falling score.
In a positive development, three countries were upgraded from “partly free” to “free”: Bolivia and Malawi, both of which held competitive elections, and Fiji, which strengthened the rule of law.
The only country to score a perfect 100 was Finland, while only South Sudan scored 0.
The biggest drop in scores was in Guinea-Bissau, where the military seized power last year and suspended the election process just days after the vote.
Founded in 1941 with bipartisan U.S. support, Freedom House is independently run but has historically received funding from the U.S. government; that funding has been sharply reduced as Trump cuts back on efforts to promote democracy.
