Are democracies thriving more than autocracies?

President Joe Biden says the state of our union is strong. And that democracies over the world have gotten stronger in the past couple years. Our pulse bay checks that claim for politifact. Is democracy thriving across the globe? Well, that's what President Biden said in his state of the union address. Take a look. Winning the competition should unite all of us. We face serious challenges across the world.

But in the past two years democracies have become stronger and outweaker. Autocracies have grown weaker and not stronger. Name me a world leader who changed places with Xi Jinping. Name me one. Biden said democracies are getting stronger and autocracies are getting weaker. But we couldn't find much evidence of that. You may have heard of the Economist magazine.

They're tied to a research group that tracks governments around the world. And in 2022 they found that freedoms are actually declining in places like Russia, Haiti, Iraq, and even Mexico. Their map here shows democracies in blue and authoritarian regimes in red. And you can see it's not exactly promising. Another group known as Freedom House also tracks human rights. And their data shows the number of free countries has sharply declined in the last three years. The trends are actually going in the opposite direction of what Biden said.

And that's why the truth may erase his claim. False. Read our full fact check at wro.com.