Citizen support for democracy in Uruguay
Uruguay: Citizen support for democracy was 0.3207 in 2020. ▼ Falling
Citizen support for democracy in Uruguay, 1995–2020
Source: Claassen (2022) – processed by Our World in Data.
Analysis
Uruguay recorded 0.3207 for citizen support for democracy in 2020.
That represents a change of up 104.4% on the previous year and down 59.4% over ten years.
Over the whole period, citizen support for democracy in Uruguay peaked at 1.19 in 1997 and was at its lowest, 0.1387, in 2018.
Uruguay ranks 39th of 144 countries on this measure, in the middle of the range.
The long-run direction has been consistently falling across the 26 years of available data.
Citizen support for democracy in Uruguay, year by year
| Year | Value | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 1995 | 1.13 | — |
| 1996 | 1.18 | +4.9% |
| 1997 | 1.19 | +0.6% |
| 1998 | 1.1 | -7.3% |
| 1999 | 1.04 | -6.0% |
| 2000 | 0.9646 | -7.0% |
| 2001 | 0.8089 | -16.1% |
| 2002 | 0.6105 | -24.5% |
| 2003 | 0.5889 | -3.5% |
| 2004 | 0.632 | +7.3% |
| 2005 | 0.6134 | -2.9% |
| 2006 | 0.6276 | +2.3% |
| 2007 | 0.663 | +5.6% |
| 2008 | 0.7664 | +15.6% |
| 2009 | 0.8414 | +9.8% |
| 2010 | 0.7888 | -6.2% |
| 2011 | 0.6998 | -11.3% |
| 2012 | 0.7205 | +3.0% |
| 2013 | 0.6027 | -16.3% |
| 2014 | 0.6384 | +5.9% |
| 2015 | 0.5826 | -8.7% |
| 2016 | 0.4082 | -29.9% |
| 2017 | 0.2928 | -28.3% |
| 2018 | 0.1387 | -52.6% |
| 2019 | 0.1569 | +13.1% |
| 2020 | 0.3207 | +104.4% |
Uruguay compared with similar countries
- Uruguay's 0.3207 is below the median for high income countries, which is 0.3338, 96% of the median. (50 countries reporting)
- Uruguay's 0.3207 is above the median for Latin America & Caribbean, which is -0.7907. (24 countries reporting)
Biggest year-on-year movements
Years where Citizen support for democracy in Uruguay changed far more than this series normally does. A large move can be a real event or a change in how the figure was measured — the source note below says who published it.
| Year | Change | From | To |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | +104.4% | 0.1569 | 0.3207 |
Averages by decade
| Decade | Average | Lowest | Highest | Years |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1990s | 1.13 | 1.04 | 1.19 | 5 |
| 2000s | 0.7117 | 0.5889 | 0.9646 | 10 |
| 2010s | 0.5029 | 0.1387 | 0.7888 | 10 |
| 2020s | 0.3207 | 0.3207 | 0.3207 | 1 |
Countries ranked near Uruguay
More social development data for Uruguay
- Refugees under the mandate of the UNHCR by country or territory of 3,195 (2025)
- Refugees under the mandate of the UNHCR by country or territory of 126 (2025)
- Political Rights Rating 1 (2025)
- Electoral democracy 1 (2025)
- Political rights rating fh, annual growth rate 0 % change on previous year (2025)
- Political rights rating fh, gaps filled 1 (2025)
- Refugees under the mandate of the UNHCR by country or territory of 0 units per person (2025)
- Refugees under the mandate of the UNHCR by country or territory of 126 (2025)
- Refugees under the mandate of the UNHCR by country or territory of 0.0009 units per person (2025)
- Refugees under the mandate of the UNHCR by country or territory of 0 units per US$ of GDP (2025)
Frequently asked questions
- What is citizen support for democracy in Uruguay?
- Citizen support for democracy in Uruguay was 0.3207 in 2020, according to Claassen (2022) – processed by Our World in Data.
- What is the highest citizen support for democracy recorded in Uruguay?
- The highest recorded value was 1.19 in 1997.
- What is the lowest citizen support for democracy recorded in Uruguay?
- The lowest recorded value was 0.1387 in 2018.
- How does Uruguay rank for citizen support for democracy?
- Uruguay ranks 39th out of 144 countries with data for 2020.
- Is citizen support for democracy rising or falling in Uruguay?
- Over the last ten years it is down 59.4%. The long-run trend across the full record is falling.
- Where does this Uruguay data come from?
- The figures come from Claassen (2022) – processed by Our World in Data, published as part of Citizen support for democracy. Statizoid updates them automatically from the source API.
Download this data
CSV · JSON — 26 observations, free to reuse under CC BY 4.0 (Our World in Data).
About this data
Central estimate of the average extent to which citizens support a democratic political system and reject autocratic alternatives. It combines responses across more than one thousand nationally-representative surveys on how desirable citizens find democracy, how they evaluate undemocratic alternatives (such as a strong unelected leader, the army, or religious authorities), and how they assess democratic and autocratic political systems relative to another.