Country profile
South Sudan
Republic of South Sudan
Africa · Sub-Saharan Africa
SS · SSD
- Capital
- Juba
- Population
- 15,786,898
- Area
- 619,745 km²
- Democracy index
- 3
- Regime type
- Failed State
Events
Ballots from South Sudan
The latest elections, referendums, and opinion polls from South Sudan. Community totals are not official results.
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Classification
Democracy profile
The score and regime label are assigned by Porto Voto using our in-house democracy index and classification framework, not ratings from governments or external agencies.
Democracy index
3/100
Regime type
Failed State
South Sudan continues to function as a failed state, defined by the near total collapse of national institutional capacity and the persistence of severe armed conflict. The governance framework remains suspended by chronic political instability, with the transitional government failing to hold national elections or provide basic security across much of the territory. Authority is fragmented between state actors and numerous local militias, leading to widespread human rights abuses, the erosion of the rule of law, and the lack of a neutral judiciary. Humanitarian crises are compounded by systemic corruption and an inability of the central government to maintain a monopoly on the legitimate use of force, resulting in an environment where democratic institutions and fundamental civil liberties are essentially non existent.
Last evaluation:
How we classify regimes →World Factbook
Country background
A concise introduction to South Sudan, together with notes on how power and law are organized, to put local ballots in context.
South Sudan, which gained independence from Sudan in 2011, is the world’s newest country. Home to a diverse array of mainly Nilotic ethnolinguistic groups that settled in the territory in the 15th through 19th centuries, South Sudanese society is heavily dependent on seasonal migration and seasonal fluctuations in precipitation. Modern-day South Sudan was conquered first by Egypt and later ruled jointly by Egyptian-British colonial administrators in the late 19th century.
Christian missionaries helped spread the English language and Christianity in the area, leading to significant cultural differences with the northern part of Sudan, where Arabic and Islam are dominant. When Sudan gained its independence in 1956, the southern region received assurances that it would participate fully in the political system. However, the Arab government in Khartoum reneged on its promises, prompting two periods of civil war (1955-1972 and 1983-2005) in which as many as 2.5 million people died -- mostly civilians -- due largely to starvation and drought.
The second Sudanese civil war was one of the deadliest since WWII and left southern Sudanese society devastated. Peace talks resulted in a US-backed Comprehensive Peace Agreement in 2005, which granted the South six years of autonomy followed by a referendum on final status. The result of this referendum, held in 2011, was a vote of 98% in favor of secession.
Since independence, South Sudan has struggled to form a viable governing system and has been plagued by widespread corruption, political conflict, and communal violence. In 2013, conflict erupted between forces loyal to President Salva KIIR, a Dinka, and forces loyal to Vice President Riek MACHAR, a Nuer. The conflict quickly spread through the country along ethnic lines, killing tens of thousands and creating a humanitarian crisis with millions of South Sudanese displaced.
KIIR and MACHAR signed a peace agreement in 2015 that created a Transitional Government of National Unity the next year. However, renewed fighting broke out in Juba between KIIR and MACHAR’s forces, plunging the country back into conflict and drawing in additional armed opposition groups. A "revitalized" peace agreement was signed in 2018, mostly ending the fighting and laying the groundwork for a unified national army, a transitional government, and elections.
The transitional government was formed in 2020, when MACHAR returned to Juba as first vice president. Since 2020, implementation of the peace agreement has been stalled amid wrangling over power-sharing, which has contributed to an uptick in communal violence and the country’s worst food crisis since independence, with 7 of 11 million South Sudanese citizens in need of humanitarian assistance. The transitional period was extended an additional two years in 2022, pushing elections to late 2024.