More than two-thirds of people in the Americas now live in Open countries

With Brazil’s shift into the category during the last year, 67% of the regional population now live in a country with the highest levels of expression.

About 45% of people living in Latin America and the Caribbean (the Americas excluding Canada and the USA) are in the Open expression category.

While the Expression Score in the Americas has remained flat at 63 over the last year, the Human Score in the region has increased by 4 points, taking the score to 74.

The sub-region of Latin America and the Caribbean saw an even larger increase in the Human Score (+8 points).

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Democratic changes to Brazil’s leadership dramatically improved its Expression Score, moving a huge swathe of the regional population into the Open category

2022-2023

In the last year, 20 million people experienced a deterioration of their freedom of expression as Chile saw a 4-point drop. Brazil’s population of 216 million people saw advances in their expression (+26 points).

2018-2023

In the last 5 years, 235 million people across 8 countries experienced a deterioration of their freedom of expression; 285 million people across 8 countries saw improvements.

The largest decline in the region was El Salvador (-43 points).

Brazil has seen an 18-point increase since 2018.

2013-2023

In the last decade, 879 million people across 14 countries experienced a deterioration of their freedom of expression; 40 million people across 3 countries saw improvements.

Similar to other timeframes, the largest decline took place in El Salvador (-46 points).

Ecuador’s score increased by 17 points over the same timeframe.

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