How long leaders stay in power, by political system
Across 170 current leaders with a regime classification, leaders of democracies have served an average of 1,383 days (about 3.8 years), while leaders of autocracies have served an average of 3,736 days (about 10.2 years) — roughly 2.7 times longer.
See also: longest-serving leaders of all time and the shortest-serving.
Average time in office by political system
Click a bar to see every country in that category and what the classification means.
A liberal democracy holds free and fair multiparty elections, and it also has strong guardrails between elections: independent courts, a free press, and real limits on what leaders can do. What is this?
1,265d
average time in office (about 3.5 years)
- 🇳🇱 William Alexander of the Netherlands4,871d
- 🇧🇪 Philippe of Belgium4,789d
- 🇫🇷 Emmanuel Macron3,396d
- 🇧🇧 Mia Mottley3,020d
- 🇪🇸 Pedro Sánchez3,012d
An electoral democracy holds real multiparty elections that are mostly free and fair, so voters can genuinely change their government. What is this?
1,446d
average time in office (about 4.0 years)
- 🇱🇸 Letsie III of Lesotho11,163d
- 🇧🇹 Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck6,507d
- 🇬🇲 Adama Barrow3,509d
- 🇲🇺 Pravind Jugnauth3,507d
- 🇿🇦 Cyril Ramaphosa3,119d
An electoral autocracy holds elections, but they are not fair contests. What is this?
3,696d
average time in office (about 10.1 years)
- 🇬🇶 Teodoro Obiang17,195d
- 🇨🇲 Paul Biya16,004d
- 🇺🇬 Yoweri Museveni14,824d
- 🇹🇯 Emomali Rahmon11,608d
- 🇩🇯 Ismail Omar Guelleh9,977d
In a closed autocracy, citizens get no meaningful vote on who leads them. What is this?
3,805d
average time in office (about 10.4 years)
- 🇸🇿 Mswati III14,738d
- 🇪🇷 Isaias Afwerki12,295d
- 🇯🇴 Abdullah II of Jordan10,067d
- 🇧🇭 Hamad II of Bahrain10,040d
- 🇲🇦 Mohammed VI of Morocco9,901d
Regime classifications follow the Regimes of the World scheme (V-Dem), via Our World in Data.