Whether measured over the last year, last 5 years, or last decade, those of us experiencing declines far outnumber those experiencing advances in freedom of expression. 

In the last year, 451 million people across 10 countries experienced a deterioration of their freedom of expression; only 335 million people across 5 countries saw improvement. 

The largest decline over the last year took place in Burkina Faso (-24 points), followed by Mongolia (-10 points) and Senegal (-9 points).

Brazil saw the largest advance of the last year with a 26-point increase, pulling the country up by 2 expression categories.

In the last 5 years, 4.2 billion people across 53 countries experienced a deterioration of their freedom of expression; only 681 million people across 18 countries saw improvement.
‍
The largest declines over the last 5 years spanned the globe: expression dropped 47 points in Afghanistan, 43 points in El Salvador, and 42 points in Hong Kong (China). The largest advance in expression (+32 points) took place in Zambia.

Over the last decade, 6.2 billion people across 78 countries experienced a deterioration of their freedom of expression; only 303 million people across 18 countries saw improvement.

Similar to the 5-year timeframe, the largest declines over the last 10 years took place in Hong Kong (-54 points), Afghanistan (-48 points), and El Salvador (-46 points).

The Gambia had by far the largest advance over the timeframe (+63 points) but is a clear outlier; the next-largest increase during the period experienced only a 28-point gain (Fiji).

There continue to be more countries in which freedoms are in decline than countries seeing rises in Expression Scores. What’s more, countries in decline contain many more people than countries in advance, which tend to have much smaller populations.