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V-Dem (Varieties of Democracy) is a research project and open dataset that measures democracy through expert-coded indicators and indices rather than a single score. This page is for researchers, students and analysts who need to decide which V-Dem file to download, understand how the numbers are produced, and cite the data correctly. Facts below were read on the V-Dem website and in its Methodology v16 document on 2026-11-07.
What V-Dem is
V-Dem is a dataset of democracy indicators. Its current release, version 16 (published March 2026), is free to download in Stata, CSV, R and SPSS formats (the coder-level file is offered in CSV and R only), and an R package, vdemdata, is published on GitHub. The data are licensed CC BY-SA 4.0, which makes them open data that can be reused with attribution and share-alike terms (see Creative Commons).
Rather than reducing democracy to one yes/no category, V-Dem models seven principles: electoral, liberal, majoritarian, consensual, participatory, deliberative and egalitarian. Its Electoral Democracy Index (variable v2x_polyarchy) is computed as the average of two quantities: a weighted average of five sub-indices and their multiplicative interaction.
Who runs it and what it covers
V-Dem is run with a network of affiliated universities that includes the University of Gothenburg and the University of Notre Dame. The v16 dataset contains 531 unique democracy indicators. Of these, 418 are coded from 1900 to the present, and 191 are coded for 1789 to 1900 as part of Historical V-Dem, which covers about 91 polities. The site’s online analysis tools describe data for 182 countries from 1900 to 2025.
Which dataset to download
The dataset page offers four configurations. The counts below are from the V-Dem dataset page (version 16).
| Dataset | Unit of observation | Contents |
|---|---|---|
| Country-Year: V-Dem Full+Others | Country-year | 531 indicators, 251 indices, plus 62 indicators from other sources |
| Country-Year: V-Dem Core | Country-year | 5 high-level indices, 93 sub-indices, 179 indicators |
| Country-Date: V-Dem | Country-date | 531 indicators, 95 indices |
| Coder-Level | Individual expert codings | 273 indicators |
How the data are produced
Most indicators are coded by Country Experts: the methodology reports over 5,000 of them, drawn from a pool of more than 30,000 potential experts considered, working across 15 topic areas. V-Dem aims for at least five Country Experts per country-year for each indicator, and version 16 averaged 5.1 experts per country-survey combination. At least three of the five should be nationals or permanent residents of the country being coded.
Expert ratings are not averaged directly. V-Dem applies a Bayesian measurement model to the expert codings and uses Bayesian factor analysis (600 posterior draws) to build indices. Read the codebook before treating an index as a simple measured quantity.
How to use it
- Go to the V-Dem dataset page at v-dem.net/data/the-v-dem-dataset/.
- Choose the dataset type: Country-Year Full+Others, Country-Year Core, Country-Date, or Coder-Level (see the table above).
- Choose a file format: Stata, CSV, R or SPSS (coder-level data: CSV or R).
- Download the matching Codebook v16 PDF, and read the variable entries for every indicator or index you plan to use.
- Read the methodology and country-unit documents listed on the same page if you compare countries across time or work with historical polities.
- Cite the dataset and version, with its DOI, in your methods section and reference list (see below).
How to cite it
V-Dem gives the citation as Coppedge et al. 2026, “V-Dem [Country-Year/Country-Date] Dataset v16”, DOI 10.23696/vdemds26. Name the version in every citation so the analysis can be reproduced (see data citation principle and reproducibility). A codebook is the file that documents variables; V-Dem publishes its own PDF, while the DDI Codebook is a separate, general XML standard for survey data.
Strengths and limits
- Disaggregation: hundreds of indicators and several index families let you study a specific institution (for example, elections) instead of one overall regime label.
- Documented method: the coding rules, aggregation model and codebook are published, and the data are openly licensed.
- Long time span: indicators reach back to 1789 for the historical subset, though only 191 of the 531 indicators are coded for 1789 to 1900.
- Expert-based: the figures depend on expert judgement and a statistical model, and the five-expert figure is a target, not a guarantee for every observation.
- Version dependence: V-Dem publishes numbered releases with their own codebooks, so fix one version for a whole project.
Alternatives
These are other widely used democracy datasets, summarised from their producers’ own pages (read 2026-11-07). They measure different things, so they complement rather than replace V-Dem.
| Dataset | What it measures | Coverage and method (per the producer) |
|---|---|---|
| Freedom in the World (Freedom House) | Political rights and civil liberties; countries rated Free, Partly Free or Not Free | 2026 edition covers 195 countries and 13 territories for calendar 2025; 25 scored questions (0 to 4 each); 134 analysts and 28 advisers, with final decisions by Freedom House staff |
| Polity5 (Center for Systemic Peace) | “Patterns of authority” and regime changes, democratic and autocratic | Annual series 1946 to 2018; Polity-case format from 1800; 167 countries with population above 500,000 in 2018; the 2018 release is listed as current |
FAQ
What does V-Dem stand for?
V-Dem stands for Varieties of Democracy. It is both the research project and the dataset it publishes.
Is V-Dem data free to use?
Yes. Version 16 is free to download and is licensed CC BY-SA 4.0, so you must credit the source and share derived material under the same license.
Which V-Dem file should I start with?
Country-Year Core is the smaller file (5 high-level indices, 93 sub-indices, 179 indicators). Country-Year Full+Others adds the complete set of 531 indicators and 251 indices. Country-Date is the date-level file, and Coder-Level holds the individual expert codings.
How many experts code each observation?
V-Dem aims for at least five Country Experts per country-year per indicator; version 16 averaged 5.1 per country-survey combination, with at least three of five being nationals or permanent residents.
How do I cite V-Dem?
Cite the exact version and DOI. For v16 that is Coppedge et al. 2026, DOI 10.23696/vdemds26, as given on the dataset page.
Sources
- V-Dem, The V-Dem Dataset, read 2026-11-07.
- V-Dem, Methodology v16, read 2026-11-07.
- Freedom House, Freedom in the World research methodology, read 2026-11-07.
- Center for Systemic Peace, INSCR data page (Polity5), read 2026-11-07.
