According to Our World in Data , the share of the world's population living in an electoral or liberal democracy was at its highest in 2000, when this figure was 54%. As the infographic illustrates, by 2019, the aforementioned figure had fallen from 50% to 32%. Although the fragility of democracy is clearly visible elsewhere in the chart, this is the grimmest example in the period under review.
The main reason for the decline is India and its downgrade in the Freedom House assessment to a 'partly free democracy'.
Frank Horvat photograph used