2023 data: Georgia among top 50 countries for freedom of expression, top 10 with 11-year progress

Georgia has been named among the top 50 countries in the world in the 2023 Freedom of Expression Index, a ranking released in collaboration between the Global Change Data Laboratory research organisation and the University of Oxford.

The report, which is based on a large-scale survey of Varieties of Democracy - an institution studying the qualities of governments - evaluates 179 countries and territories across the globe.

With a score of 84.9 percent on the 100 percent assessment system, Georgia has surpassed 13 European Union and NATO member states, as well as all EU candidate countries and other countries, including Greece, Poland, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Malta, Turkey and Israel.

This places Georgia 44th in the world for freedom of expression, ahead of all its neighbouring countries and as the top-ranked state in the Black Sea region.

In a ranking based on 11 years of progress, the country has risen from 108th place in 2012 to the current ninth, marking an improvement of 64 places in the global evaluation.