How long leaders stay in power, by political system
Across 171 current leaders with a regime classification, leaders of democracies have served an average of 1,431 days (about 3.9 years), while leaders of autocracies have served an average of 3,853 days (about 10.5 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?
1,291d
average time in office (about 3.5 years)
- 🇳🇱 William Alexander of the Netherlands4,931d
- 🇧🇪 Philippe of Belgium4,849d
- 🇫🇷 Emmanuel Macron3,456d
- 🇧🇧 Mia Mottley3,080d
- 🇪🇸 Pedro Sánchez3,072d
An electoral democracy holds real multiparty elections that are mostly free and fair, so voters can genuinely change their government. What is this?
1,506d
average time in office (about 4.1 years)
- 🇱🇸 Letsie III of Lesotho11,223d
- 🇧🇹 Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck6,567d
- 🇬🇲 Adama Barrow3,569d
- 🇲🇺 Pravind Jugnauth3,567d
- 🇿🇦 Cyril Ramaphosa3,179d
An electoral autocracy holds elections, but they are not fair contests. What is this?
3,702d
average time in office (about 10.1 years)
- 🇬🇶 Teodoro Obiang17,255d
- 🇨🇲 Paul Biya16,064d
- 🇺🇬 Yoweri Museveni14,884d
- 🇹🇯 Emomali Rahmon11,668d
- 🇩🇯 Ismail Omar Guelleh10,037d
In a closed autocracy, citizens get no meaningful vote on who leads them. What is this?
4,113d
average time in office (about 11.3 years)
- 🇸🇿 Mswati III14,798d
- 🇪🇷 Isaias Afwerki12,355d
- 🇧🇾 Alexander Lukashenka11,790d
- 🇯🇴 Abdullah II of Jordan10,127d
- 🇧🇭 Hamad II of Bahrain10,100d
Regime classifications follow the Regimes of the World scheme (V-Dem), via Our World in Data.