After more than a decade of steady erosion, support for democracy in Latin America appears to be rebounding. Sixty-five percent of Latin Americans now agree that democracy, whatever its problems, is better than any other form of government, six points higher than in 2023. With gains in nearly every country and across every age group and education level, it is the first broad upturn in a generation. This finding comes from the 2026 Pulse of Democracy, published this month by Vanderbilt University’s Center for Global Democracy with the Kellogg Institute for International Studies at the University of Notre Dame. The report draws on the AmericasBarometer, the hemisphere’s most comprehensive study of public opinion and democratic attitudes: nationally representative samples of voting-age adults fielded since 2004, including more than 433,000 interviews in 34 countries. The 2026 round comprises 25,282 interviews across 21 nations.
