World and society · ranked by Age of liberal democracy
Countries with the oldest liberal democracies
| # | Name | Age of liberal democracy | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 177 years | new | |
| 2 | 113 years | new | |
| 3 | 108 years | new | |
| 4 | 105 years | new | |
| 5 | 104 years | new | |
| 6 | 102 years | new | |
| 7 | 82 years | new | |
| 8 | 80 years | new | |
| 9 | 80 years | new | |
| 10 | 80 years | new |
Show positions 11–41
| 11 | 80 years | new | |
| 12 | 80 years | new | |
| 13 | 79 years | new | |
| 14 | 77 years | new | |
| 15 | 74 years | new | |
| 16 | 70 years | new | |
| 17 | 57 years | new | |
| 18 | 56 years | new | |
| 19 | 56 years | new | |
| 20 | 46 years | new | |
| 21 | 43 years | new | |
| 22 | 41 years | new | |
| 23 | 37 years | new | |
| 24 | 35 years | new | |
| 25 | 30 years | new | |
| 26 | 26 years | new | |
| 27 | 22 years | new | |
| 28 | 22 years | new | |
| 29 | 11 years | new | |
| 30 | 10 years | new | |
| 31 | 9 years | new | |
| 32 | 5 years | new | |
| 33 | 4 years | new | |
| 34 | 4 years | new | |
| 35 | 3 years | new | |
| 36 | 3 years | new | |
| 37 | 1 years | new | |
| 38 | 1 years | new | |
| 39 | 1 years | new | |
| 40 | 1 years | new | |
| 41 | 1 years | new |
History
How the top 10 has moved
Positions of today's top 10 across every published snapshot.
About this ranking
Countries with the oldest liberal democracies, explained
Countries with the oldest liberal democracies is a live ranking of the top 41 entries in world and society by Age of liberal democracy, built from public data published by Our World in Data. It was last refreshed on 2026-10-29. This is the first published snapshot; from the next refresh onwards the page will also show movers, new entries and a rank history chart.
Switzerland currently holds #1 with 177 years. New Zealand is second with 113 years, which puts the leader 57% ahead. Australia completes the top three with 108 years. Together the top three account for about 39% of the combined top-10 total, which gives a quick sense of how concentrated this ranking is.
How it is measured: Age of liberal democracy. Classification by Lührmann et al. (2018) based on expert estimates by V-Dem. Liberal democracies are political systems that hold meaningful, free and fair, and multi-party elections, and their citizen Our World in Data chart "age-of-liberal-democracy-row"; most recent year per country within the last five years of data, regional aggregates excluded. Caveat: Years differ by country; the chart page documents the original source and its limitations. Data from Our World in Data (CC BY 4.0) and the sources it cites. The full top 41 is on this page, with positions 11 to 41 one click away, and each entry links to its own profile showing every ranking it appears in.
Use this page to check who is number one right now, compare any two entries head to head, or test yourself with the quiz, which asks you to name all ten in three minutes. Year-end archives are available for 2026, freezing the ranking as it stood at the close of each year. Top10Earth never estimates or edits a value: each number is fetched from its source, hashed, stored and ranked by software, then checked by a quality gate before it is published. If a refresh fails the gate, the previous snapshot stays live and the problem is reviewed by a person.
Frequently asked questions
- Who is #1 in Countries with the oldest liberal democracies?
- Switzerland is #1 with 177 years, as of 2026-10-29. New Zealand is #2.
- How is Countries with the oldest liberal democracies ranked?
- By Age of liberal democracy. Age of liberal democracy. Classification by Lührmann et al. (2018) based on expert estimates by V-Dem. Liberal democracies are political systems that hold meaningful, free and fair, and multi-party elections, and their citizen Our World in Data chart "age-of-liberal-democracy-row"; most recent year per country within the last five years of data, regional aggregates excluded.
- How often is this ranking updated?
- It refreshes on a fixed schedule from Our World in Data. The latest snapshot was captured on 2026-10-29.
- Where does the data come from?
- Our World in Data. Data from Our World in Data (CC BY 4.0) and the sources it cites. The raw payload for every refresh is stored unchanged so any number can be traced back.