North Korea ranked at the bottom again in a global survey measuring levels of democracy.
 
The Voice of America reported Wednesday that the North trailed 166 other countries in the 2014 global democracy index, conducted by the Economist Intelligence Unit of the British magazine, The Economist.
 
It is the seventh consecutive time the regime has occupied the lowest rung in the democracy index since 2006.
 
The EIU measures the level of democracy of countries in five categories: electoral process and pluralism, functioning of government, political participation, political culture, and civil liberties. The score is given on a scale from zero to 10.
 
In the 2014 survey, the North received a meager one-point-08 points on average. It received a zero in two categories – electoral process and pluralism and civil liberties. The surveyed countries received an average overall score of five-point-five points, while the Asian average was three-point-65 points.
 
Norway topped the ranking with nine-point-93 points, followed by other Nordic countries such as Sweden at nine-point-73 points and Iceland at nine-point-58 points. 
 
Japan ranked highest in Asia at eight-point-08 points, followed by South Korea at eight-point-06 points.