In producing the GxR, ARTICLE 19 selected the 25 indicators from the Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) Dataset that best matched our broad and holistic view of freedom of expression. The V-Dem Dataset is described below, and the indicators are described in this document.
We included these 25 indicators in a Bayesian measurement model for countries with available data between 2000 and 2022 to create the GxR metric, which underpins our report.
Our final data file contains the 161 countries (after combining Gaza and West Bank to report results for Palestine) for which at least one year of data is available between 2000 and 2022.
Throughout our reporting, we refer to the results by ‘country’. However, we acknowledge that some of these are special regions that are part of another country in our data (e.g. Hong Kong). We acknowledge that there are various ways to group countries into regions and to analyse the data, and we continue to evolve our methodology each year.
ARTICLE 19 Mexico and Central America has its own methodology for tracking freedom of expression in Mexico. To that end, Mexico is not included in GxR rankings or in any country-level analyses using the metric.
We included these 25 indicators in a Bayesian measurement model for countries with available data between 2000 and 2022 to create the GxR metric, which underpins our report.
Our final data file contains the 161 countries (after combining Gaza and West Bank to report results for Palestine) for which at least one year of data is available between 2000 and 2022.
Throughout our reporting, we refer to the results by ‘country’. However, we acknowledge that some of these are special regions that are part of another country in our data (e.g. Hong Kong). We acknowledge that there are various ways to group countries into regions and to analyse the data, and we continue to evolve our methodology each year.
ARTICLE 19 Mexico and Central America has its own methodology for tracking freedom of expression in Mexico. To that end, Mexico is not included in GxR rankings or in any country-level analyses using the metric.

Scores, expression categories, and rankings
For each country, we calculate an Expression Score from the 25 variables, which is produced as a point estimate from the Bayesian measurement models. This initial score falls between 0 and 1, and we re-scale and round the value to report GxR as an integer (0–100).
We calculate scores for both Global and Regional Expression by taking the average of the country-level scores described above.
We also calculate the Human Score at both global and regional levels, taking into account the size of the population that is experiencing the expression environment. To calculate the Human Score, we adjust the Global and Regional Expression Scores by a population weight to ensure that each country is represented in proportion to its population size within those measures.
Countries are placed in their respective expression categories based on these final integers.
In crisis
0-19
Highly restricted
20-39
Restricted
40-59
Less restricted
60-79
Open
80-100
We order the scores from highest to lowest at both global and regional levels, creating a list of global and regional rankings, to ascertain where a country sits in relation to other countries.
Scores and rankings are available for each year between 2000 and 2022.
Scores and rankings are available for each year between 2000 and 2022.