Influential British magazine The Economist has placed Malta in 15th place on the democratic leaderboard, outpacing powerhouses such as the United States and the United Kingdom.

The report The World in 2007 said that almost half the countries in the world can be classified as being democratic, but only 28 countries can be described as true democracies.

These 28 feature the most developed nations of the world. The report was drafted on five criteria; electoral process and pluralism, functioning of government, political participation, political culture, and civil liberties, with a maximum of 10 points per each category.

Based on these categories, The Economist classified the countries into four stages of democracy; full democracy, 28 countries; flawed democracy, 54; hybrid democracy, 30; and authoritarian regime, 55.

The Economist stated that despite the recent wave of democratisation in the world, only 13 per cent of the global population are considered to live in a true democratic country, while on the flipside, some 40 per cent still live under authoritarian or totalitarian regimes.

Sweden is the most democratic country, according to the research, with 9.88 average score.

Ireland comes in next with 9.71 points followed by The Netherlands at 9.66, followed by Norway in fourth with 9.55. Malta outpaced the US which is ranked 17th while the United Kingdom 23rd.

The average democratic index in each continent is 8.64 in North America, 8.60 in Western Europe, 6.37 in Latin America, 5.76 in Eastern Europe, with the Middle East and North Africa (3.53) and Sub-Saharan Africa (4.24) at the bottom.

North Korea, which received an average score of 1.03 out of 10, not surprisingly came last out of the 167 in the ranking. It received no points at all in the civil liberties category.

South Korea did a better job, ranking as the 31st democratic country among 167 with a ‘flawed democracy.’ Spain is ranked 16th, behind Malta; Portugal is in 19th, Japan and Belgium rank 20th and France 24th, followed by Costa Rica, Mauritius Island, Slovenia and Uruguay sharing position 27.

The report points out that United States has suffered “a serious erosion of civil liberties” in the context of the war on terrorism, similar to the UK with a significant declination in political participation.

The top 10 of the group of “flawed democracies” was Italy followed by India, Botswana, South Africa and Chile.

The “flawed” group also mentions new EU members or candidates such as Slovakia, Poland, Bulgaria and Romania and others such as Israel, the Philippines and Indonesia.

Turkey, Nicaragua, Ecuador, Venezuela, Russia, Haiti, 109, and Iraq, figure in the “hybrid” group. Finally the authoritarian regimes include Cuba, Pakistan, Jordan, Morocco and Egypt, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and China.