Academic Freedom Index: Update 2022

This year’s update of the Academic Freedom Index provides an overview of the state of academic freedom in 177 countries and territories. Based on an assessment of the de facto protection of academic freedom as of December 2021, it details two concerning findings. First, the latest data reveal a substantial and statistically significant decline in academic freedom in 19 cases, with improvements registered in only two cases compared with 2011. Thirty-seven percent of the world’s population live in these 19 countries and territories with major recent drops in academic freedom. Second, the decline in academic freedom accompanies an accelerating and deepening wave of autocratization.