South Korea Ranks 16th in Democracy Maturity Worldwide... North Korea Escapes Bottom with 165th Place

[Asia Economy Reporter Ki-min Lee] South Korea's democracy maturity ranked 16th out of 167 countries worldwide, rising 7 places from last year.

On the 10th (local time), the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), the economic analysis institute affiliated with the British weekly news magazine The Economist, announced the "Democracy Index 2021," where South Korea scored 8.16 out of 10 points, placing 16th.

Last year, South Korea scored 8.01 points and ranked 23rd, joining the ranks of "Full democracy" after five years as a "Flawed democracy."

Since 2006, the EIU has evaluated 167 countries based on five areas: election process and pluralism, functioning of government, political participation, political culture, and civil liberties, to calculate the level of democracy development.

Based on this, countries scoring above 8 points are classified as "Full democracies," those scoring over 6 up to 8 as "Flawed democracies," over 4 up to 6 as "Hybrid regimes," and below 4 as "Authoritarian regimes."

South Korea received scores of 9.58 in election process and pluralism, 8.57 in functioning of government, 7.22 in political participation, 7.5 in political culture, and 7.94 in civil liberties. The overall average score increased as the election process and pluralism scores rose by 0.41 and 0.36 points respectively compared to last year.

North Korea ranked 165th, avoiding the bottom for the first time since the survey began in 2006. North Korea scored 1.08 overall, the same as the previous year, but Myanmar (1.02 points), where military dictatorship continues after a coup, and Afghanistan (0.32 points), where the Islamic militant group Taliban regained power, saw their scores plummet, pushing them to the bottom.

Norway (9.75 points) topped the list again this year, followed by New Zealand (9.37 points), Finland (9.27 points), Sweden (9.26 points), Iceland (9.18 points), Denmark (9.09 points), and Ireland (9.00 points).

Among major Asian countries, Taiwan entered the "Top 10" by ranking 8th with 8.99 points, while Japan ranked 17th with 8.15 points, one place below South Korea.