How old are democracies across the world?
> Only a few countries have been electoral democracies for a long time. Eight countries — Canada, Finland, Iceland, Ireland, New Zealand, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States — have been electoral democracies for a century or more. And according to this data, just two countries have been electoral democracies even longer: Australia and Switzerland have been democracies since the mid-19th century.<p>Am I missing something? By which measure was the US (and possibly another among the first eight in this list) not an electoral democracy for as long as Australia and Switzerland? All three had significant restrictions on suffrage, with Switzerland particularly regressive in this regard in the late 20th century.<p>EDIT: I was thinking of Iceland as well, which has a very reasonable claim to be the oldest (continuous and current) democracy along with the US and possibly the Isle of Man, depending on how democracy is defined.