Longest ruling leaders in authoritarian states worldwide 2025| ��ƽ��

Longest ruling national leaders in authoritarian countries as of June 2025, by years in office

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Release date

June 2025

More information

Region

Worldwide

Survey time period

June 2025

Supplementary notes

Authoritarian states are defined as countries ranked as 'not free' in the .

Leaders who have been in office for less than 10 years are not included.

Based on year of appointment in office.

*Appointed Sultan in 1967, absolute monarch since 1984.
**Officially appointed President in 1982, but appointed to Head of State in 1979.
***Prime Minister from 1975 to 1982, then President.
****Includes terms as Prime Minister and President.
Emir from 1999 to 2002, then King.
*Prime Minister from 1979 to 1992, President since 1997.
**First term from 1981 to 1990, then 2007 to present.
***Prime Minister from 2003 to 2014, then President.

Citation formats

The longest serving state leader in an authoritarian country as of June 2025 was ****, the current President of ***. However, some see ****, the President of **, as the longest ruling leader because **** was Prime Minister from 1975 to 1982 before assuming the role of President. * has ruled ***since 1979, meaning that he has held office for ** years. **** seized power in a coup d'état from his uncle and his son, ***, is the country's vice president and posed to be the country's next President after his father.

Differences of authoritarianism

The list of the longest serving authoritarian leaders only shows a limited picture of authoritarian states. Some authoritarian countries change rulers regularly, but not through free and fair elections. The individual characteristics of Obiang's personal rule in Equatorial Guinea and the Islamic Republic under Ali Khamenei in Iran are substantial. What all these regimes have in common is the oppression of a political opposition through coercive means and the absence of free and fair elections. Over the past ten years, there has been a decline in liberal democracies, but the number of democracies in the world is still significantly higher today than it was after the end of the Cold War.

The most authoritarian states

A range of rankings weighting different factors try to measure the level of democracy and freedom in the world. Freedom House's Freedom in the World is probably the most referred to, but the Economist Intelligence Unit's (EIU) is also widely referred to as it includes more dimensions than Freedom House's. In 2022, Afghanistan was ranked as the least democratic country in the world by the EIU, while Norway ranked as the most democratic.