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Freedom of Association Score

What you should know about this indicator

  • Score of 1: Association and assembly rights are denied. Independent civic groups do not exist or are prohibited.
  • Score of 4: Association and assembly rights are often subject to interference or government restrictions. Residents and civic groups that do not support the government often cannot exercise these rights.
  • Score of 7: Association and assembly rights are occasionally subject to interference or government restrictions, but generally there are no outright prohibitions of independent political or civic groups.
  • Score of 10: Association and assembly rights are guaranteed against interference or government restrictions. Residents and civic groups can fully exercise these rights.
  • The remaining scores are intermediate categories.
Freedom of Association Score
Indicates the extent to which residents and civic groups are free from government interference to associate and assemble.
Source
Bertelsmann Transformation Index (2026) – processed by Our World in Data
Last updated
March 27, 2026
Next expected update
March 2027
Date range
2005–2025

Sources and processing

This data is based on the following sources

Bertelsmann Transformation Index – Bertelsmann Transformation Index, Scores

Throughout the world, democracy and a market economy have become powerful frameworks in which social sustainability can prosper. Successful processes of reform can be observed in every region of the globe. There are, however, no guarantees of success; many countries undergoing transformation face stagnation and power struggles or violence and even state failure. Good governance is pivotal to reform policies that work. What are the key decisions? What are the lessons to be learned from past experiences? What strategies are likely to succeed? Under which conditions? The BTI 2026 puts development and transformation policies to the test.

Advocating reforms aimed at supporting the development of a constitutional democracy and a socially responsible market economy, the BTI provides the framework for an exchange of good practices among agents of reform. The BTI publishes two rankings, the Status Index and the Governance Index, both of which are based on in-depth assessments of 137 countries. The Status Index ranks the countries according to the state of their democracy and market economy, while the Governance Index ranks them according to their respective leadership’s performance. Distributed among the dimensions of democracy, market economy and governance, a total of 17 criteria are subdivided into 49 indicators.

BTI countries are selected according to the following criteria: They have yet to achieve a fully consolidated democracy and market economy, have populations of more than one million, and are recognized as sovereign states.

The Transformation Index project is managed by the Bertelsmann Stiftung.

Retrieved on
March 27, 2026
Retrieved from
https://bti-project.org/
Citation
This is the citation of the original data obtained from the source, prior to any processing or adaptation by Our World in Data. To cite data downloaded from this page, please use the suggested citation given in Reuse This Work below.
Bertelsmann Stiftung. 2026. Bertelsmann Transformation Index 2026.

Throughout the world, democracy and a market economy have become powerful frameworks in which social sustainability can prosper. Successful processes of reform can be observed in every region of the globe. There are, however, no guarantees of success; many countries undergoing transformation face stagnation and power struggles or violence and even state failure. Good governance is pivotal to reform policies that work. What are the key decisions? What are the lessons to be learned from past experiences? What strategies are likely to succeed? Under which conditions? The BTI 2026 puts development and transformation policies to the test.

Advocating reforms aimed at supporting the development of a constitutional democracy and a socially responsible market economy, the BTI provides the framework for an exchange of good practices among agents of reform. The BTI publishes two rankings, the Status Index and the Governance Index, both of which are based on in-depth assessments of 137 countries. The Status Index ranks the countries according to the state of their democracy and market economy, while the Governance Index ranks them according to their respective leadership’s performance. Distributed among the dimensions of democracy, market economy and governance, a total of 17 criteria are subdivided into 49 indicators.

BTI countries are selected according to the following criteria: They have yet to achieve a fully consolidated democracy and market economy, have populations of more than one million, and are recognized as sovereign states.

The Transformation Index project is managed by the Bertelsmann Stiftung.

Retrieved on
March 27, 2026
Retrieved from
https://bti-project.org/
Citation
This is the citation of the original data obtained from the source, prior to any processing or adaptation by Our World in Data. To cite data downloaded from this page, please use the suggested citation given in Reuse This Work below.
Bertelsmann Stiftung. 2026. Bertelsmann Transformation Index 2026.

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Citations

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To cite this page overall, including any descriptions, FAQs or explanations of the data authored by Our World in Data, please use the following citation:

“Data Page: Freedom of Association Score”, part of the following publication: Bastian Herre, Lucas Rodés-Guirao, and Esteban Ortiz-Ospina (2013) - “Democracy”. Data adapted from Bertelsmann Transformation Index. Retrieved from https://archive.ourworldindata.org/20260417-111409/grapher/freedom-of-association-score-bti.html [online resource] (archived on April 17, 2026).

How to cite this data

In-line citationIf you have limited space (e.g. in data visualizations), you can use this abbreviated in-line citation:

Bertelsmann Transformation Index (2026) – processed by Our World in Data

Full citation

Bertelsmann Transformation Index (2026) – processed by Our World in Data. “Freedom of Association Score” [dataset]. Bertelsmann Transformation Index, “Bertelsmann Transformation Index, Scores” [original data]. Retrieved April 17, 2026 from https://archive.ourworldindata.org/20260417-111409/grapher/freedom-of-association-score-bti.html (archived on April 17, 2026).

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