Egypt ranks 130 on 2017 Democracy Index, score improves as global average declines

Egypt ranked 130 of 165 on the Economist Intelligence Unit’s 2017 Democracy Index, which saw the average global score drop to 5.48 in 2017 from 5.52 in 2016, as 89 countries “experienced a decline in their total score compared with 2016.” While Egypt’s score improved slightly to 3.36 in 2017 from 3.31 in 2016, the report says that the Middle East and North Africa is “the world’s worst region for press freedom,” citing arrests of journalists in Egypt and Bahrain, as well as “censorship practices” as reasons behind MENA’s 3.6 average score and 116.2 ranking. You can view the full report here (pdf).