Leviathan Index – Country Rankings 2025

96 official LI rankings · 179 available FOSK profiles · Reference year 2025

Click a metric to sort. “—” means that a dimension or LI cannot be calculated under version 1.0. Missing values always sort last; the LI Rank column is reserved for the original 96-country ranking. Scroll within the table to view all entries.

The 96 official LI results and additional partial country profiles are listed below. Enable JavaScript to filter, search or sort; the official and extended CSV files can also be downloaded.

Leviathan Index 1.0: 96 official LI rankings and 133 additional country/territory records. Missing dimensions and LI are shown as dashes; numeric sorting uses unrounded values.
LI RankOriginal index ranking	CountryCountry						NotesFootnotes
1	Denmark	90.8	93.0	92.4	86.9	7.7	No country-specific note
2	Finland	89.5	89.3	90.1	86.3	6.4	No country-specific note
3	Norway	89.4	89.3	89.3	87.0	7.3	No country-specific note
4	New Zealand	87.5	92.1	87.0	85.1	13.1	[3]
5	Sweden	86.9	91.3	86.3	80.8	7.2	No country-specific note
6	Japan	86.7	89.2	80.7	88.8	9.7	No country-specific note
7	Estonia	86.6	92.3	81.9	84.2	9.3	No country-specific note
8	Ireland	86.3	92.4	83.1	87.5	15.9	No country-specific note
9	Netherlands	85.6	87.5	84.8	83.2	12.6	No country-specific note
10	Belgium	84.6	91.9	78.7	82.7	11.4	[2]
11	Austria	84.1	87.8	80.1	85.0	15.6	No country-specific note
12	Australia	83.8	89.3	83.7	78.4	14.3	No country-specific note
13	South Korea	83.7	87.4	73.9	88.7	9.6	No country-specific note
14	Germany	82.9	89.7	83.5	76.7	15.7	No country-specific note
15	Canada	82.4	83.9	82.8	81.5	18.7	No country-specific note
16	Lithuania	82.3	88.3	74.7	81.1	11.2	No country-specific note
17	Czechia	81.0	90.0	71.6	81.9	14.5	No country-specific note
18	France	80.6	88.9	74.0	76.7	12.7	No country-specific note
19	United Kingdom	80.6	81.3	79.3	80.0	18.0	[2]
20	Spain	80.3	88.9	68.3	84.5	13.4	No country-specific note
21	Latvia	80.1	90.2	68.8	80.3	11.0	No country-specific note
22	Uruguay	79.1	85.8	74.5	71.3	8.2	No country-specific note
23	Cyprus	78.9	84.1	65.1	87.8	13.0	No country-specific note
24	Slovenia	78.7	81.5	66.2	84.2	8.9	No country-specific note
25	Portugal	77.8	77.6	67.8	82.1	10.6	[3]
26	Italy	77.7	84.8	65.6	82.3	16.1	No country-specific note
27	Poland	77.0	88.0	64.9	78.7	16.7	No country-specific note
28	Singapore	75.1	62.8	84.3	92.8	28.4	No country-specific note
29	Costa Rica	75.1	89.5	66.6	67.0	13.1	No country-specific note
30	Mauritius	74.8	86.2	61.5	77.9	19.5	[3]
31	Croatia	74.6	79.6	57.8	83.7	10.4	No country-specific note
32	Slovakia	74.5	81.1	59.1	81.1	14.6	No country-specific note
33	Chile	73.7	88.9	69.4	61.9	16.1	No country-specific note
34	Romania	73.4	81.1	55.4	82.5	13.8	No country-specific note
35	Ghana	73.3	87.2	54.6	79.1	13.5	[3]
36	Botswana	73.2	81.1	60.6	70.9	10.9	[2]
37	United States	72.6	81.2	68.8	67.3	24.7	No country-specific note
38	Greece	72.2	80.7	57.8	76.3	19.6	No country-specific note
39	Bulgaria	70.9	83.0	49.7	80.7	13.6	No country-specific note
40	Malaysia	70.6	68.4	61.0	83.5	26.0	No country-specific note
41	Namibia	69.4	84.2	56.9	69.0	26.0	[2]
42	Albania	69.0	79.5	47.4	80.0	16.3	No country-specific note
43	Dominican Republic	68.3	84.9	49.5	68.4	16.2	No country-specific note
44	Argentina	67.9	80.0	50.8	70.3	20.8	No country-specific note
45	Hungary	67.6	68.9	47.3	83.8	14.3	No country-specific note
46	Jamaica	67.4	89.1	54.9	58.8	20.2	No country-specific note
47	Bosnia and Herzegovina	67.2	75.6	44.1	80.2	13.4	No country-specific note
48	Moldova	67.0	78.7	49.3	76.2	27.4	No country-specific note
49	Panama	67.0	80.8	49.1	67.6	18.8	No country-specific note
50	Mongolia	66.5	77.3	47.0	74.5	22.4	No country-specific note
51	South Africa	66.2	84.0	52.2	61.3	22.7	[3]
52	Jordan	66.1	66.6	53.4	78.9	29.6	No country-specific note
53	Brazil	65.4	84.6	48.4	60.7	18.3	No country-specific note
54	Trinidad and Tobago	65.4	85.0	50.2	57.7	17.1	[3]
55	Guyana	64.6	81.5	48.9	65.8	29.6	No country-specific note
56	Peru	64.6	79.1	46.6	62.9	19.0	[2]
57	Paraguay	64.2	77.9	42.2	67.9	16.4	No country-specific note
58	Indonesia	64.0	69.5	53.8	71.6	36.1	[3]
59	Sierra Leone	63.8	79.9	37.2	77.4	19.9	[1]
60	Nepal	63.5	78.3	44.1	80.7	37.0	[1]
61	Tunisia	63.1	66.6	46.5	70.9	24.9	[1]
62	Serbia	62.7	66.8	41.2	77.2	21.7	No country-specific note
63	Morocco	61.4	56.0	48.3	80.4	31.2	No country-specific note
64	Kenya	60.8	80.7	43.3	59.6	30.1	[3]
65	Guatemala	60.1	79.4	38.8	60.4	25.2	No country-specific note
66	Tanzania	59.4	64.7	45.8	72.2	40.5	[1]
67	Mexico	59.1	71.6	40.2	59.0	25.3	No country-specific note
68	Bolivia	59.0	73.9	33.7	68.7	25.8	No country-specific note
69	Honduras	58.9	84.7	34.8	59.2	24.8	No country-specific note
70	El Salvador	58.8	63.0	41.3	65.3	27.6	[3]
71	Kuwait	57.7	41.2	57.1	84.1	39.9	[1]
72	Ecuador	56.9	73.0	45.0	49.0	32.7	No country-specific note
73	Philippines	56.9	74.1	47.0	60.6	49.1	No country-specific note
74	Colombia	55.6	81.5	48.4	38.0	32.3	No country-specific note
75	Kyrgyzstan	55.3	59.8	35.8	79.6	42.9	[1]
76	India	55.1	62.3	52.0	58.0	50.6	[3]
77	Lebanon	54.7	71.0	36.5	56.4	37.8	[1]
78	Kazakhstan	54.4	51.6	48.9	80.4	54.7	[3]
79	United Arab Emirates	52.1	27.6	69.0	87.6	53.0	[3]
80	Mauritania	52.0	53.4	32.0	79.0	44.6	[1]
81	Nigeria	51.7	83.0	37.1	41.5	40.6	No country-specific note
82	Qatar	50.2	18.3	66.9	87.9	44.6	[3]
83	Türkiye	49.9	48.1	39.9	67.7	52.0	No country-specific note
84	Rwanda	49.7	29.8	60.9	77.7	56.1	[1]
85	Cameroon	49.3	61.1	34.2	46.4	39.3	[3]
86	Algeria	48.9	41.4	45.3	74.9	58.4	No country-specific note
87	Ukraine	48.4	54.2	40.7	40.9	39.2	[2]
88	Zimbabwe	47.9	55.2	31.0	72.8	58.0	[3]
89	Pakistan	45.8	54.7	37.1	43.8	50.9	No country-specific note
90	Haiti	45.5	70.7	22.0	33.0	21.3	No country-specific note
91	Uganda	45.0	49.2	37.5	60.0	63.3	No country-specific note
92	China	39.4	18.0	49.4	82.3	71.4	[1]
93	Venezuela	37.7	39.5	19.7	59.8	61.6	[3]
94	Nicaragua	36.9	21.7	27.7	67.3	58.9	[2]
95	Russia	35.9	32.8	36.6	40.2	65.7	[2]
96	Myanmar	28.5	20.6	26.8	44.0	75.1	[4]
—	Afghanistan	—	—	25.6	51.0	64.4	Partial
—	American Samoa	—	—	—	—	—	No data
—	Andorra	—	—	—	—	—	No data
—	Angola	—	58.4	38.9	—	32.1	Partial
—	Anguilla	—	—	—	—	—	No data
—	Antigua and Barbuda	—	—	61.2	—	—	Partial
—	Armenia	—	78.1	—	—	—	Partial
—	Aruba	—	—	—	—	—	No data
—	Azerbaijan	—	34.3	—	—	65.8	Partial
—	Bahamas	—	—	60.9	—	—	Partial
—	Bahrain	—	39.4	—	—	51.0	Partial
—	Bangladesh	—	65.2	37.0	—	30.8	Partial
—	Barbados	—	86.9	66.7	—	15.0	Partial
—	Belarus	—	33.2	35.3	—	69.1	Partial
—	Belize	—	—	46.0	—	—	Partial
—	Benin	—	75.8	47.2	—	15.8	Partial
—	Bermuda	—	—	—	—	—	No data
—	Bhutan	—	64.5	—	—	37.3	Partial
—	Brunei	—	—	—	—	—	No data
—	Burkina Faso	—	47.8	43.4	—	49.6	Partial
—	Burundi	—	41.7	—	—	46.6	Partial
—	Cabo Verde	—	84.8	—	—	15.5	Partial
—	Cambodia	—	37.7	29.4	—	56.5	Partial
—	Cayman Islands	—	—	—	—	—	No data
—	Central African Republic	—	51.3	—	—	28.9	Partial
—	Chad	—	50.0	—	—	55.3	Partial
—	Comoros	—	52.8	—	—	—	Partial
—	Cook Islands	—	—	—	—	—	No data
—	Cuba	—	—	—	—	50.8	Partial
—	Curaçao	—	—	—	—	—	No data
—	Côte d’Ivoire	—	69.6	44.5	—	30.7	Partial
—	Djibouti	—	49.2	—	—	55.1	Partial
—	Dominica	—	—	55.0	—	—	Partial
—	DR Congo	—	50.4	27.5	—	43.7	Partial
—	Egypt	—	35.9	35.5	—	57.2	Partial
—	Equatorial Guinea	—	—	—	—	—	No data
—	Eritrea	—	—	—	—	77.8	Partial
—	Eswatini	—	29.5	—	—	51.3	Partial
—	Ethiopia	—	38.4	36.6	—	62.5	Partial
—	Faroe Islands	—	—	—	—	—	No data
—	Fiji	—	73.3	—	—	36.5	Partial
—	French Guiana	—	—	—	—	—	No data
—	French Polynesia	—	—	—	—	—	No data
—	Gabon	—	72.9	37.9	—	25.1	Partial
—	Gambia	—	82.0	43.4	—	7.9	Partial
—	Georgia	—	74.5	52.6	—	30.7	Partial
—	Gibraltar	—	—	—	—	—	No data
—	Greenland	—	—	—	—	—	No data
—	Grenada	—	—	55.7	—	—	Partial
—	Guam	—	—	—	—	—	No data
—	Guinea	—	52.0	33.2	—	49.5	Partial
—	Guinea-Bissau	—	59.0	—	—	—	Partial
—	Hong Kong (SAR)	—	50.6	74.8	—	34.3	Partial
—	Iceland	—	89.1	—	—	5.9	Partial
—	Iran	—	28.0	33.8	—	70.5	Partial
—	Iraq	—	59.7	—	—	43.6	Partial
—	Isle of Man	—	—	—	—	—	No data
—	Israel	—	80.7	—	—	23.0	Partial
—	Jersey	—	—	—	—	—	No data
—	JG	—	—	—	—	—	No data
—	Kiribati	—	—	—	—	—	No data
—	Kosovo	—	—	49.0	75.5	16.8	Partial
—	Laos	—	22.9	—	—	49.5	Partial
—	Lesotho	—	79.4	—	—	20.2	Partial
—	Liberia	—	79.8	37.0	—	19.5	Partial
—	Libya	—	45.4	—	—	56.2	Partial
—	Liechtenstein	—	—	—	—	—	No data
—	Luxembourg	—	91.3	86.7	—	8.1	Partial
—	Macao	—	—	—	—	—	No data
—	Madagascar	—	75.1	35.7	—	30.4	Partial
—	Malawi	—	78.5	44.7	—	17.7	Partial
—	Maldives	—	—	—	—	—	No data
—	Mali	—	58.7	34.7	—	37.0	Partial
—	Malta	—	87.8	59.7	—	15.9	Partial
—	Marshall Islands	—	—	—	—	—	No data
—	Martinique	—	—	—	—	—	No data
—	Micronesia	—	—	—	—	—	No data
—	Monaco	—	—	—	—	—	No data
—	Montenegro	—	86.4	53.6	81.0	—	Partial
—	Mozambique	—	58.5	34.6	—	35.9	Partial
—	Nauru	—	—	—	—	—	No data
—	New Caledonia	—	—	—	—	—	No data
—	Niger	—	71.1	37.6	—	25.0	Partial
—	Niue	—	—	—	—	—	No data
—	North Korea	—	—	—	—	—	No data
—	North Macedonia	—	77.0	48.5	79.8	—	Partial
—	Northern Mariana Islands	—	—	—	—	—	No data
—	Oman	—	36.1	—	—	48.0	Partial
—	Palau	—	—	—	—	—	No data
—	Palestine	—	—	—	—	—	No data
—	Palästina Gaza	—	—	—	—	—	No data
—	Papua New Guinea	—	79.1	—	—	24.1	Partial
—	Puerto Rico	—	—	—	—	—	No data
—	Republic of the Congo	—	47.3	31.7	—	51.3	Partial
—	Réunion	—	—	—	—	—	No data
—	Saint Kitts and Nevis	—	—	61.0	—	—	Partial
—	Saint Lucia	—	—	59.3	—	—	Partial
—	Saint Martin (French part)	—	—	—	—	—	No data
—	Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	—	—	57.6	—	—	Partial
—	Samoa	—	—	—	—	—	No data
—	San Marino	—	—	—	—	—	No data
—	Sansibar	—	—	—	—	—	No data
—	Sao Tome and Principe	—	—	—	—	—	No data
—	Saudi Arabia	—	23.7	—	—	—	Partial
—	Senegal	—	82.1	55.7	—	28.7	Partial
—	Seychelles	—	84.5	—	—	14.4	Partial
—	Sint Maarten (Dutch part)	—	—	—	—	—	No data
—	Solomon Islands	—	—	—	—	13.4	Partial
—	Somalia	—	44.2	—	—	35.6	Partial
—	Somaliland	—	—	—	—	—	No data
—	South Sudan	—	—	—	—	59.5	Partial
—	Sri Lanka	—	78.9	48.6	—	25.7	Partial
—	Sudan	—	24.6	21.7	—	65.4	Partial
—	Suriname	—	86.1	47.0	—	20.2	Partial
—	Switzerland	—	91.9	—	—	7.7	Partial
—	Syria	—	28.4	—	—	47.6	Partial
—	Taiwan	—	87.5	—	—	15.4	Partial
—	Tajikistan	—	27.5	—	—	68.0	Partial
—	Thailand	—	68.5	47.0	—	44.7	Partial
—	Timor-Leste	—	81.4	—	—	15.3	Partial
—	Togo	—	66.8	38.2	—	48.5	Partial
—	Tonga	—	—	—	—	—	No data
—	Turkmenistan	—	—	—	—	72.1	Partial
—	Turks and Caicos Islands	—	—	—	—	—	No data
—	Tuvalu	—	—	—	—	—	No data
—	Uzbekistan	—	—	41.2	83.2	51.6	Partial
—	Vanuatu	—	—	—	—	10.3	Partial
—	Vatican City	—	—	—	—	—	No data
—	Vietnam	—	32.3	48.2	—	55.1	Partial
—	Virgin Islands, British	—	—	—	—	—	No data
—	Virgin Islands, U.S.	—	—	—	—	—	No data
—	Yemen	—	24.9	—	—	49.7	Partial
—	Zambia	—	76.5	42.9	—	21.1	Partial
No countries match your search. Try another name or ISO code.

Source: Leviathan Index 1.0, approved workbook. LI ranks available for 96 complete profiles only.96 official LI ranks · 83 partial profiles · 50 entries without complete FOSK dimensions · Data and source years

How to read the index

LI expresses proximity to the theoretical reference profile (100, 100, 100, 0). F measures selected freedoms; O describes institutional order; S combines selected violence burdens with criminal-justice effectiveness.

A higher K means more measured control. It covers selected surveillance, information control, repression and historical crisis restrictions. It is calculated separately from F. K = 0 does not mean a state without police, courts or ordinary enforcement.

Partial profiles: Additional countries or territories appear where at least one of F, O, S or K can be calculated from all four required subdimensions. A missing dimension is not replaced with an average of the available subdimensions, and no LI or LI rank is assigned. Of the 229 country/territory records in the source workbook, 96 have a complete LI, 83 have partial FOSK profiles, and 50 have no complete main dimension. This expanded display does not change the 96-country scientific sample or the book.

A higher LI is not a universal rating of society. Read the four dimensions together. Explore the method and its limits →

Country notes

Homicide observations span 2020–2023. Notes identify observations before the regular 2023–2025 window and the documented V-Dem fallback. Common source-period limits are explained in the methodology.

The intentional-homicide input for S1 is from 2020. It is the latest eligible observation recorded in the approved workbook, five years before the reference year.Countries: Sierra Leone, Nepal, Tunisia, Tanzania, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Mauritania, Rwanda, China.
The intentional-homicide input for S1 is from 2021. It is the latest eligible observation recorded in the approved workbook, four years before the reference year.Countries: Belgium, United Kingdom, Botswana, Namibia, Peru, Ukraine, Nicaragua, Russia.
The intentional-homicide input for S1 is from 2022. It is the latest eligible observation recorded in the approved workbook, three years before the reference year.Countries: New Zealand, Portugal, Mauritius, Ghana, South Africa, Trinidad and Tobago, Indonesia, Kenya, El Salvador, India, Kazakhstan, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Cameroon, Zimbabwe, Venezuela.
For Myanmar, K1 uses the 2024 observation of v2smprivcon_ord (legal protection of private internet content), because the approved workbook records a fallback from the reference year. The other included V-Dem observations are from 2025.Countries: Myanmar.

The Leviathan Index is a macro-sociological research instrument for comparing selected characteristics of state systems.

The idea

From social mechanisms to the comparison of state systems

What happens when the perspective shifts from individuals and social organisations to entire states?

The starting point: HomoZo®

Wolfgang Daspelgruber’s earlier book, HomoZo® – The Last Chapter of Evolution, examines how people live within social structures. Its themes include power, socialisation, conformity, manipulation, media and social control. The focus is on individuals, relationships and organisations: the micro and meso levels of social analysis.

These questions provided a theoretical and critical starting point for the Leviathan Index. HomoZo® is not an earlier version of the index, and it is not its empirical predecessor. The later project asks a different question at a different level of analysis. Instead of concentrating on how social mechanisms shape individual behaviour, it examines the institutional settings in which entire populations live.

A change of perspective

At the macro level, the state becomes the object of comparison. How much freedom do its institutions and practices allow? How reliably do those institutions operate? What selected forms of violence affect its population and territory? How strongly does it use surveillance, information control, repression and exceptional restrictions?

A country can have a capable administration while offering limited political freedoms. Another can allow broad personal freedoms while struggling with severe violence or ineffective criminal justice. These combinations are difficult to understand through a single label such as “strong state”, “small state” or “free country”. The Leviathan Index was developed to make selected differences within those combinations visible.

The problem of the Leviathan

The project takes its name from Thomas Hobbes’s Leviathan, published in 1651. Hobbes’s concern with a common protective authority provides a starting point: enforceable rules and protection may require public power. Yet the institutions that exercise that power can also restrict the people they are meant to protect.

The project does not adopt Hobbes’s political solution as its measurement model. It carries the protective question into a framework that also considers the limits placed on public authority. Courts, administration and law enforcement can support security and predictable rules. Their effectiveness and legal constraints matter alongside the ways in which governments intervene in people’s lives.

Three distinctions follow. State size concerns resources, responsibilities or the extent of the public sector. State capacity concerns the ability to carry out public tasks. The control dimension in this index concerns a selected set of interventions. These are related questions, but they are not interchangeable. The index measures neither a complete state-capacity model nor the total size of government.

Four dimensions for comparison

The FOSK framework keeps Freedom, Order, Security and Control separate. Its sixteen subdimensions connect these concepts to specified international indicators. The contribution of the project lies in that architecture, the choice of measurements and the rules that combine them. It draws principally on existing research and data rather than claiming a new worldwide primary survey.

The resulting four-value profile is the primary description of a country within the model. A composite Leviathan Index then reports its distance from a stated reference profile: high measured freedom, order and security, with low measured control. This reference expresses a normative choice. It is not an empirically established optimum, and its simultaneous attainability has not been demonstrated.

Keeping the question open

The purpose is to support a more precise discussion of public power. Country profiles can reveal differences that a broad judgment about “more” or “less” government would conceal. They can also suggest questions for further research about institutions and specific interventions.

A cross-country comparison cannot determine which intervention was causally necessary in a particular society. Nor can an index settle questions of political legitimacy or the rights of those affected. The project offers a transparent comparison under defined assumptions. The question of how much state people need remains a matter for empirical investigation, institutional judgment and explicit values.

Read the framework, indicators and calculation method →

The index

Leviathan Index 1.0 · Reference year 2025 · 96 countries

A macro-sociological comparison of state systems through Freedom, Order, Security and Control.

What is the Leviathan Index?

The Leviathan Index combines selected international indicators into sixteen subdimensions and four main dimensions. The resulting FOSK profile describes a country within those defined measurements. The overall LI score summarises its distance from an explicitly stated reference profile.

Version 1.0 contains 96 countries for which all sixteen subdimensions can be calculated under the specified rules. The reference year is 2025, but several inputs refer to earlier observations or multi-year periods. This is a comparison assembled for a reference year, rather than a completely synchronous observation of every country characteristic.

The countries are included through data availability. They are not a random or globally representative sample. An LI score is also not a comprehensive assessment of a society’s quality: the model does not directly measure all aspects of welfare, inequality, health, environmental conditions or human experience.

The four dimensions

F Freedom

Selected political, personal, informational and economic opportunities for action. These are structural freedoms; a national score does not establish that every individual can exercise them equally.

O Order

Selected aspects of institutional quality: constraints on government powers, government effectiveness, control of corruption and reliable regulatory enforcement.

S Security

Intentional homicide, terrorism, territorial state-based conflict deaths, and the effectiveness of criminal investigation and adjudication. S combines violence burdens with an institutional response component.

K Control

Selected forms of surveillance, information control, state physical repression and historical crisis restrictions. A higher K indicates greater measured control. It does not indicate better quality or the total amount of state activity.

K is calculated from its own indicators. It is not defined as 100 − F. Separate calculation rules do not establish that the dimensions are statistically independent or entirely distinct in meaning.

The FOSK matrix

Each dimension has four subdimensions. The following matrix preserves the core indicator assignments of version 1.0.

Sixteen FOSK subdimensions and their original indicator assignments
ID	Subdimension	Definition	Indicator or component	Original provider
F1	Freedom of expression and information	Opportunities to express views and obtain alternative sources of information.	Freedom of Expression and Alternative Sources of Information Index (v2x_freexp_altinf)	V-Dem
F2	Political freedom of action	Opportunities for political parties and civil society organisations to associate and operate.	Freedom of Association Index, thick (v2x_frassoc_thick)	V-Dem
F3	Personal autonomy	Selected religious freedoms and freedom of movement within the country.	Freedom of religion (v2clrelig_ord) and domestic freedom of movement (v2xcl_dmove)	V-Dem
F4	Economic freedom of action	Selected property rights and economic freedom as assessed through credit, labour and business regulation indicators.	Property rights (v2xcl_prpty) and Economic Freedom of the World, Area 5: Regulation	V-Dem; Fraser Institute
O1	Rule of law	Institutional constraints on the exercise of government powers.	WJP Factor 1: Constraints on Government Powers	World Justice Project
O2	Government and administrative effectiveness	Perceived quality of public services, administration and policy implementation.	Worldwide Governance Indicators: Government Effectiveness	World Bank
O3	Impartiality and control of corruption	Perceived extent to which public power is protected from use for private gain.	Worldwide Governance Indicators: Control of Corruption	World Bank
O4	Regulatory enforcement and institutional reliability	Effective and predictable enforcement of regulations.	WJP Factor 6: Regulatory Enforcement	World Justice Project
S1	Protection against severe interpersonal violence	Burden of intentional homicide, measured per 100,000 people.	Intentional homicides per 100,000 people (VC.IHR.PSRC.P5)	UNODC, distributed through World Bank WDI
S2	Effectiveness of law enforcement and criminal justice	Effectiveness of criminal investigations and timeliness and effectiveness of criminal adjudication.	WJP subfactors 8.1: Criminal investigation system is effective; 8.2: Criminal adjudication system is timely and effective	World Justice Project
S3	Protection against terrorism	Selected burden of terrorism as measured by the multi-year GTI score.	Global Terrorism Index (GTI)	Institute for Economics & Peace
S4	Protection against armed conflict	Deaths from state-based organised violence within the country's borders, per 100,000 people.	UCDP sb_total_deaths_best_cy, divided by 2025 population and multiplied by 100,000	UCDP; World Bank WDI for population
K1	Surveillance and data collection	Government monitoring of political social-media content and legal access to private internet content.	Government social-media monitoring (v2smgovsmmon_ord) and privacy protection by law (v2smprivcon_ord)	V-Dem
K2	Information control	Government internet filtering and internet shutdown practices.	Government internet filtering in practice (v2smgovfilprc_ord) and government internet shutdown in practice (v2smgovshut_ord)	V-Dem
K3	Coercion and repression	State physical repression, particularly torture and political killings.	Physical Violence Index (v2x_clphy), inverted	V-Dem
K4	Crisis Leviathan	Intensity and duration of selected historical pandemic restrictions over a common period.	Own component: daily mean of normalised national OxCGRT C1–C8 indicators, averaged over 2020–2022	Oxford COVID-19 Government Response Tracker; Leviathan Index construction

Provider names identify the original source or the source of the underlying data. For S1, UNODC data are accessed through World Bank WDI; S4 also uses WDI population data. The downloadable codebook adds the fixed transformations and data years.

How is the index calculated?

Raw data → Normalisation → 16 subdimensions → FOSK dimensions → Distance to reference → Leviathan Index

Inputs are transformed to a common 0–100 scale. Existing bounded measures use their specified transformations. Intentional-homicide and territorial conflict-death rates use capped logarithmic transformations with frozen version 1.0 calibration limits. K4 is constructed from a daily historical series.

When a subdimension has two normalised components, they are equally weighted. Each main dimension is then the arithmetic mean of its four subdimensions. K4 first takes the equal daily mean of eight normalised C1–C8 components, then the equal mean over the 1,096-day period.

The theoretical reference vector is T = (100, 100, 100, 0), in the order F, O, S, K. Freedom, Order and Security increase towards their reference values. Control increases away from its reference value.

d_F = (100 − F) / 100 · d_O = (100 − O) / 100
d_S = (100 − S) / 100 · d_K = K / 100

D = \sqrt{\frac{d_{F}^{2} + d_{O}^{2} + d_{S}^{2} + d_{K}^{2}}{4}} LI = 100 \cdot (1 - D)

Equal weights of 25% for each squared dimension distance

An LI of 100 denotes an exact mathematical match with the reference profile. Lower values denote a greater normalised Euclidean distance. A higher LI therefore indicates greater proximity under the chosen rules; it does not mean that a society is universally better, or that a point difference represents a percentage improvement.

The reference is normative. The analysis has not demonstrated that all four endpoints can be attained together, or that their combination is a legitimate or universally optimal social arrangement. The score is partly compensatory: a smaller distance in one dimension can offset a greater distance in another. That arithmetic is not a moral justification for any particular practice.

What does K = 0 mean?

Zero is the lower endpoint of the selected control measures. It does not describe a state without police, courts, taxation, administrative inspections or ordinary enforcement. These activities are not comprehensively represented in K.

Some source categories also allow “none or almost none” practices or exceptional lawful access while mapping to a zero control component. A numerical zero cannot always be read as the literal absence of every intervention. The index does not assess the necessity, proportionality or legitimacy of each recorded restriction.

Methodology and limitations

Sources and observation years

The model combines V-Dem, WJP, WGI, Fraser EFW, UNODC/WDI, IEP’s GTI, UCDP and OxCGRT. These sources include expert and survey assessments, modelled estimates and event data. Similar source methods and overlapping concepts can contribute to correlations between dimensions.

Fraser’s 2025 edition supplies 2023 observations. The homicide inputs in this ranking span 2020–2023. Most included V-Dem observations are from 2025; one Myanmar K1 input is from 2024. WJP edition years do not imply that every underlying population survey was conducted in that year. The GTI’s 2025 result includes multi-year weighting.

The historical pandemic component

K4 describes selected restrictions from 1 January 2020 to 31 December 2022. It is an original component built from OxCGRT C1–C8, with the relevant geographic flags, rather than a direct copy of Oxford’s Stringency Index. It measures historical intensity and duration. It does not measure control in 2025, future crisis powers or the health effectiveness of pandemic policy.

Weighting and sensitivity

The reference method uses equal weights at the stated aggregation levels. The manuscript examines 891 combinations of main-dimension weights, with each dimension between 20% and 30% in one-percentage-point steps and total weights of 100%. Further checks for eight selected countries vary security calibration limits and omit individual subdimensions. The country values on this website retain the original reference method.

These are deterministic scenario checks. Their rank ranges are not confidence or credible intervals. They describe sensitivity within the tested assumptions, rather than a probability that one country is “really” superior.

Uncertainty and causal interpretation

A complete propagation of source-specific measurement uncertainty to FOSK and LI has not been provided. Decimal places show a calculation’s presentation precision, not the certainty of the underlying measurements. Small point differences alone do not establish reliable qualitative superiority.

Cross-country associations, partial correlations and country-pair comparisons do not identify the effects of a specific intervention. Historical conditions, resources, social structure and causal direction require additional research. Neither the amount of necessary control nor the outcome of removing a measure can be derived from this single country comparison.

Coverage and aggregation

Country averages cannot describe all regional or group differences. The 96-country coverage reflects complete-case availability. Missing data are not treated as zero; countries without all sixteen subdimensions do not receive a complete LI in this ranking. Findings apply first to the included country profiles.

Always read LI together with F, O, S and K. Countries with similar composite scores can have substantially different profiles.

See data, source years and methodological documentation →

Documentation

Data, methodology and original-source references

Inspect the country results and the definitions behind them.

These downloads document the publicly accessible Leviathan Index 1.0 website snapshot, prepared on 10 October 2026 and based on the approved 2025 reference workbook. The 96 official LI rankings are fixed; the expanded FOSK table additionally displays 83 partial profiles. Reference year and publication date are different concepts.

Index data and methodology

Document	Format	Description
Country Rankings 2025Version 1.0 · Reference year 2025	CSV10.7 KB	All 96 official country results, full stored precision and timing notes.
Country Rankings 2025Version 1.0 · Reference year 2025	JSON36.6 KB	Structured results, index metadata and verified country notes.
Sources and Data YearsVersion 1.0 · Reference year 2025	CSV76.7 KB	2,112 input/year records for the 96 included countries.
FOSK CodebookVersion 1.0 · Reference year 2025	CSV4.5 KB	The sixteen definitions, indicator assignments, transformations and periods.
Methodological NotesVersion 1.0 · Reference year 2025	HTML12.7 KB	Data dictionary, fixed calculation rules and reproduction boundaries.
Workbook Export MaterialsVersion 1.0 · Reference year 2025	ZIP9.2 KB	Read-only export script, reviewed name mapping, validation instructions and example audit.

Country values are exported at full stored precision. The website display uses one decimal place. Source-year records contain observation metadata, not copies of all raw source datasets. These download files do not include the full book manuscript.

Extended coverage (supplementary): The homepage also offers a CSV of all 229 country/territory records. It preserves the 96 official LI ranks, adds 83 partial FOSK profiles and includes 50 records with no complete main dimension. This is a descriptive website extension, not a revised index, an additional official ranking or a globally representative sample. Missing dimensions remain blank.

Research and validation

The manuscript reports deterministic robustness checks, cross-country correlations, partial correlations, country-pair comparisons and a Pareto analysis. The methodological interpretation on this website follows the limits stated in that work.

The weighting check considers all 891 combinations with each main dimension between 20% and 30%, in one-percentage-point steps, and a total of 100%. Additional eight-country checks vary security calibration limits and omit subdimensions. Scenario frequencies and rank ranges are not probabilities or measurement-confidence intervals.

Standalone reports and the original scripts for those research analyses are not currently included in the release files. No unavailable report is presented as downloadable. The export checks supplied here verify the website’s use of the approved workbook; they do not establish independent empirical validation of the complete index.

Original data providers

Use the original providers for their datasets, reports, codebooks and current reuse terms. Their releases can change; the website ranking remains the fixed author-approved snapshot.

V-Dem — Dataset v16 and codebook.
World Justice Project — Rule of Law Index 2025.
World Bank WGI — Governance estimates and absolute scores, 2026 update.
Fraser Institute — Economic Freedom of the World 2025; Area 5, 2023 observations.
UNODC / World Bank WDI — Intentional homicides per 100,000 people.
World Bank WDI — Population, total.
Institute for Economics & Peace — Global Terrorism Index 2026.
UCDP — Organized Violence Country-Year Dataset v26.1 and codebook.
Oxford / OxCGRT — Final pandemic policy dataset and documentation.

Source references for this snapshot

Coppedge, M., Gerring, J., Knutsen, C.H., Lindberg, S.I., Teorell, J. et al. (2026a) V-Dem Country-Year Dataset v16. Varieties of Democracy Project. DOI: 10.23696/vdemds26. Original source.
Coppedge, M., Gerring, J., Knutsen, C.H., Lindberg, S.I., Teorell, J. et al. (2026b) V-Dem Codebook v16. March 2026. Varieties of Democracy Project. Original source.
Fraser Institute (2025) Economic Freedom of the World 2025: Master Index Data for Researchers with ISO Codes. Vancouver: Fraser Institute. Area 5 observations: 2023. Original source.
Institute for Economics & Peace (2026) Global Terrorism Index 2026: Measuring the Impact of Terrorism. Sydney: Institute for Economics & Peace. March 2026. Original source.
Oxford COVID-19 Government Response Tracker (2023) Final Dataset: Compact National Version 1. Oxford: Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford. Original source.
Oxford COVID-19 Government Response Tracker (n.d.) Documentation and Codebook. Accessed 10 October 2026. Original source.
Uppsala Conflict Data Program (2026) UCDP Country-Year Dataset on Organized Violence within Country Borders, Version 26.1. Uppsala: Uppsala University. Original source.
Yilmaz, M.C. (2026) UCDP Country-Year Dataset on Organized Violence within Country Borders Codebook, Version 26.1. Uppsala: Department of Peace and Conflict Research, Uppsala University. Original source.
World Bank (2026a) Worldwide Governance Indicators: 2026 Update, Governance Estimates and Scores 1996–2025. Washington, DC: World Bank. 2025 observations. Original source.
World Bank (2026b) Population, Total (SP.POP.TOTL). World Development Indicators. 2025 observations; source snapshot recorded in the approved workbook. Original source.
World Bank and United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (2026) Intentional Homicides per 100,000 People (VC.IHR.PSRC.P5). World Development Indicators. Included observations: 2020–2023. Original source.
World Justice Project (2025) World Justice Project Rule of Law Index 2025: Historical Data File. Washington, DC: World Justice Project. Original source.

Material not posted on this website

The full manuscript, complete book chapters, private notes and conversation records are excluded. Third-party provider files are linked at source rather than rehosted. The full calculation workbook contains underlying provider values and is withheld until its redistribution conditions and publication approval have been settled.

The reuse terms of the derived dataset require an explicit release decision. V-Dem’s published dataset terms specify attribution and share-alike conditions; Oxford’s pandemic dataset specifies attribution. A citation alone does not establish compatibility of every combined source or permission to redistribute every file.

Citing the index

Suggested citation for the official 96-country ranking:

Daspelgruber, W. (2026) Leviathan Index 1.0: Country Rankings 2025. 96-country reference dataset, version 1.0; website edition, 10 October 2026. https://www.leviathanindex.com/.

When citing a webpage, include your own access date. The LI ranking covers 96 complete countries; partial FOSK profiles shown online are not additional ranked countries.

About

An independent macro-sociological research project

About the project

The Leviathan Index combines selected international measurements into a common framework for comparing state systems. It describes four dimensions—Freedom, Order, Security and Control—and keeps their individual profiles visible alongside an overall index.

The aim of this website is to make the country results and their methodological basis accessible for reading, scrutiny and further research. Version 1.0 provides official LI rankings for 96 countries with all sixteen subdimensions available under its stated rules. The interactive table additionally displays 83 partial FOSK profiles and can show another 50 records without a complete main dimension. Inclusion reflects data availability; the ranked countries are not a random or globally representative sample.

The project’s interpretation is deliberately bounded. The index compares measured country profiles against a normative reference. It does not measure every aspect of society or determine the causal necessity of particular state interventions.

About the author

Wolfgang Daspelgruber

Author and project owner of the Leviathan Index.

Wolfgang Daspelgruber is the author of HomoZo® – The Last Chapter of Evolution, published in German, English and Italian. His earlier work provided a theoretical and critical starting point for the later macro-sociological comparison of state systems.

He is currently working on his forthcoming book, The Leviathan Index – How Much State Does Humanity Need? (German working title: Der Leviathan-Index – Wie viel Staat braucht der Mensch?). The book develops the theoretical foundations, methodology and interpretation of the Leviathan Index.

Read how the project developed →

Support the Leviathan Index

The Leviathan Index is an independent research project. Your voluntary contribution helps support the maintenance, documentation and further development of this publicly accessible resource.

Donate via PayPal

Voluntary contributions are processed on PayPal’s website.

paypal.me/OxGroover

PayPal donation QR code — Scan to contribute via PayPal

Contributions are voluntary. No claim of charitable status or tax deductibility is made.

Methodological notes and data dictionary

Leviathan Index 1.0 · Reference year 2025 · Prepared 10 October 2026

Definitions, fixed transformations, source years and the boundary of the available reproduction materials.

These notes summarise the public website edition of the approved index model. They are independent documentation, not a reproduction of a book chapter. Redistribution rights for original third-party data and research files remain subject to their respective licences.

Ranking data dictionary

Field	Meaning
li_rank	Original overall LI rank, retained when the displayed table is sorted by another metric.
country; iso3	Reviewed English display name and original three-letter country identifier.
LI	Official cached overall index value. Higher values mean a smaller distance from the specified reference.
F; O; S; K	Official cached Freedom, Order, Security and Control values. K increases with selected forms of measured control.
homicide_year	Year of the intentional-homicide observation used in S1 for this country.
vdem_fallback	Documented earlier observation used for a V-Dem input, or null when no such fallback is recorded.
notes	Verified note numbers for country-specific timing exceptions.
search_aliases	Search assistance only, including original German names and familiar English alternatives. These aliases do not add country records.

The official 96-country JSON/CSV files contain stored full-precision results. The expanded CSV additionally contains 83 partial profiles and 50 records without a complete main dimension; missing values are not zero. The webpage displays one decimal place using the approved 0.0 format rule. Sorting uses unrounded values, with missing values last and the original LI rank preserved. The browser does not recalculate LI or FOSK values.

Subdimension transformations

Inputs and components are put on the specified 0–100 scales before aggregation. A two-component subdimension uses an equal mean of those components. The table records the exact assignments and constants used by the approved workbook.

ID	Rule	Observation year or period
F1	100 × v2x_freexp_altinf	2025
F2	100 × v2x_frassoc_thick	2025
F3	(25 × v2clrelig_ord + 100 × v2xcl_dmove) / 2	2025
F4	(100 × v2xcl_prpty + 10 × Fraser Area 5) / 2	V-Dem 2025; Fraser 2023
O1	100 × WJP Factor 1	2025 edition
O2	Use the WGI absolute 0–100 score, not the percentile rank or latent estimate	2025; 2026 update
O3	Use the WGI absolute 0–100 score, not the percentile rank or latent estimate	2025; 2026 update
O4	100 × WJP Factor 6	2025 edition
S1	100 × [1 − ln(1 + min(x, 49.2545)) / ln(1 + 49.2545)]	Latest eligible observation, 2020–2023 in this ranking
S2	50 × (WJP 8.1 + WJP 8.2)	2025 edition
S3	100 − 10 × GTI	2025 result in the 2026 report; multi-year weighting
S4	100 × [1 − ln(1 + min(x, 10.47361)) / ln(1 + 10.47361)]	2025
K1	100 × [1 − (v2smgovsmmon_ord + v2smprivcon_ord) / 8]	2025, except Myanmar v2smprivcon_ord: 2024
K2	100 × [1 − (v2smgovfilprc_ord + v2smgovshut_ord) / 8]	2025
K3	100 × (1 − v2x_clphy)	2025
K4	Equal mean of eight flag-adjusted 0–100 daily indicators, then equal mean over 1,096 calendar days	1 January 2020–31 December 2022

Frozen security calibration limits

For S1 and S4, x is the relevant death rate per 100,000 people. Both use the capped logarithmic transformation:

z = 100 × [1 − ln(1 + min(x, U)) / ln(1 + U)]

The version 1.0 constants are U_S1 = 49.2545 and U_S4 = 10.47361. S1 uses the linear 97.5th percentile of 83 eligible observations for the 2023 homicide calibration cross-section. S4 uses the same percentile rule for a 196-country 2025 territorial state-based death-rate calibration cross-section, including countries with zero corresponding deaths.

At x = 0 the transformed score is 100; at or above U it is 0. These limits are fixed for version 1.0. They do not change in response to a surprising country result or the set of countries currently displayed.

The K4 historical component

The eight categories are school closures (C1), workplace closures (C2), cancellation of public events (C3), restrictions on gatherings (C4), public-transport closures (C5), stay-at-home requirements (C6), internal-movement restrictions (C7) and international-travel controls (C8).

For country c and calendar day t, each component I_j,c,t is normalised according to the documented Oxford indicator scale and applicable geographic flags. The daily component is k_c,t = (I_1,c,t + … + I_8,c,t) / 8. K4_c is the arithmetic mean of those daily values over the same 1,096 calendar days, 1 January 2020–31 December 2022, for all included countries.

This construction excludes Oxford’s H1 public-information component and is not the supplied Stringency Index. It combines intensity and duration, without rating the health benefits or political justification of restrictions. A full raw-data reconstruction also requires the original processing rules for any missing or flagged daily observations; those original processing scripts have not been supplied for publication.

Aggregation and reference distance

F = (F1 + F2 + F3 + F4) / 4, with the same rule for O, S and K. The reference is T = (100, 100, 100, 0). The normalised distances are d_F = (100 − F) / 100, d_O = (100 − O) / 100, d_S = (100 − S) / 100, and d_K = K / 100.

D = √[(d_F² + d_O² + d_S² + d_K²) / 4]
LI = 100 × (1 − D)

Each main dimension therefore contributes 25% of the squared distance. The profile and the composite value serve different purposes: the profile retains the four measured characteristics, while LI compresses them through the reference and aggregation rule.

Source years and missing data

The source-year download provides 2,112 input/year records for the 96 officially ranked countries (not the additional partial profiles). It preserves the distinction between a publication edition and an observation period. The documented source-year identifiers are not a claim that all underlying surveys or expert judgments took place in exactly that year.

The general hierarchy is the reference-year observation, then the newest comparable observation within 2023–2025, with an exceptional fallback as far as 2020 in the same internationally harmonised series. If an admissible observation is unavailable, it remains missing. No zero substitution or automatic national-series replacement is used. Fraser’s fixed 2023 observations and K4’s historical 2020–2022 period have their own specified roles.

In the ranked dataset, the homicide observations are 62 from 2023, 16 from 2022, 8 from 2021 and 10 from 2020. Myanmar uses a 2024 v2smprivcon_ord observation within K1. All other included V-Dem input/year records refer to 2025.

What can be reproduced with these files?

The export script starts from the author-approved workbook and reads its cached results without modifying it. It checks all 96 countries, all 480 headline values, their original rank order, the 16-subdimension arithmetic, the four dimension means and the LI formula. It exports the unchanged results to JSON and CSV, and records a source-file checksum.

That procedure reproduces and audits the website export from the approved workbook. It is not an independent reconstruction of every raw input from the provider archives. The original WJP historical file and standalone population extract are not among the supplied website source files, and the original K4 and research-analysis scripts have not been released. The full workbook is currently withheld from website downloads pending redistribution review.

The website code and workbook-export materials are available in the documentation downloads. New source releases, observations or index versions must receive scientific approval before replacing the published snapshot.

Interpretation boundaries

The reference profile is normative; its simultaneous attainability and universal optimality are not established. K = 0 does not abolish normal enforcement and does not prove the literal absence of every intervention. K4 is historical, S4 is territorial and state-based, and S2 measures an institutional response.

Equal weighting does not remove conceptual overlap or common-method effects. The existing deterministic robustness checks do not propagate all measurement errors. Cross-sectional or partial correlations do not identify causal effects. Read the full limitations summary before using a score as evidence for a broader claim.

Privacy information

Privacy notice for the Leviathan Index website · Updated 10 October 2026

Controller and contact

Wolfgang Daspelgruber, Ochsenstraße 29, A-4073 Wilhering, Austria.
E-mail: office@homozo.at.

No analytics or tracking in the website code

The website operator has not installed Google Analytics, advertising trackers or visitor-analysis tools. The supplied site uses no analytics cookies, external font services, tracking pixels or embedded PayPal scripts. Searching, filtering and sorting countries happens locally in your browser; search terms are not sent by this website to the operator. The page does not itself save those search terms in browser storage.

Hosting and technical access data

This site is hosted by dogado GmbH, Antonio-Segni-Straße 11, 44263 Dortmund, Germany (provider privacy information). When you request a page or download, technically necessary connection information, including your IP address, request time and the requested resource, may be handled or recorded by the hosting infrastructure and its security systems. This processing serves website delivery, technical stability, fault diagnosis and protection against misuse (legitimate interests, Article 6(1)(f) GDPR).

The exact categories and retention periods of logs for this particular Dogado hosting account have not yet been independently confirmed. They depend on the host's actual configuration and must be checked with the provider; no specific retention period is asserted here.

Contact by e-mail

If you contact office@homozo.at, the content of your message and the contact details you provide are used to process and respond to your enquiry (Article 6(1)(f) GDPR, or Article 6(1)(b) where your enquiry concerns steps towards an agreement). Messages are retained as needed to handle the request and comply with any applicable legal duties; they are not used for marketing lists or sold to advertisers. E-mail providers may technically process messages in transit or storage.

Downloads, external links and PayPal

Data downloads are offered either directly in the page or from this website's hosting server. Clicking an external original-source link takes you to the third-party provider, which applies its own privacy practices. Voluntary donations use PayPal.me/OxGroover; no PayPal payment code is embedded in this website. Payment data are processed on PayPal's service only after you choose to visit it. The displayed donation QR code is stored in the page, not fetched from PayPal.

Your rights

Subject to applicable conditions, you may request access, rectification, erasure, restriction, data portability, or object to processing. Contact the controller at office@homozo.at. You may also lodge a complaint with the Austrian Data Protection Authority (Datenschutzbehörde).

For the website operator's details, read the legal notice →.