A modern smartphone contains between 60 and 70 distinct materials sourced from up to 40 different countries. It is the most complex consumer product on the planet, and also the one that most rarely meets democratic origin criteria. This guide explains why — and how to find the exceptions that do.
The cobalt problem (Democratic Republic of Congo, EIU 1.45)
Cobalt is the most problematic material in any smartphone with a lithium-ion battery. Between 60 and 70% of the world's cobalt is extracted in the Democratic Republic of Congo, a country with an EIU score of 1.45 — authoritarian regime. Conditions in the artisanal mines of Katanga have been documented by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the UN itself: child labour, absence of labour protection, exposure to cobalt dust without protective equipment.
No high-end smartphone on the market today is free of Congolese cobalt in its battery, unless the manufacturer has audited and traced its mineral supply chain down to the mine level. To date, only two manufacturers have published that level of traceability in a verifiable way: Fairphone (Netherlands) and Apple (for part of its production, since 2023). The difference is that Fairphone does so with public data verifiable by third parties; Apple reports it in aggregate form without access to the full audit.
Lithium: Chile (EIU 7.64) and Argentina (EIU 7.28)
Lithium, the other critical battery mineral, has a more diverse and slightly more favourable provenance. Chile and Argentina together make up the 'Lithium Triangle' and both countries exceed the democratic threshold of 6.0. However, extraction in the Salar de Atacama (Chile) has documented impact on Atacameño indigenous communities and on water resources in one of the driest areas on Earth — an environmental and rights problem the EIU index does not directly capture.
Assembly: China (EIU 1.94) and the alternatives
Most of the world's smartphones are assembled in China (EIU 1.94, authoritarian regime) or Vietnam (EIU 2.82, authoritarian regime). Foxconn, which manufactures for Apple, Samsung and many other brands, has its main facilities in Zhengzhou and Shenzhen. Samsung has factories in Vietnam. Assembly is the hardest step to democratise because it requires enormous manufacturing infrastructure that does not exist in democratic countries at competitive costs.
The best-known exception is, again, Fairphone: its models are primarily assembled in China, but the company works actively with its Foxconn suppliers to improve labour conditions, publishes annual social audits, and pays a welfare premium ('fair wage bonus') directly to assembly line workers — something no other manufacturer does publicly and verifiably.
Glass and screen: South Korea (EIU 8.09) and Japan (EIU 8.33)
Gorilla Glass (Corning, USA, EIU 7.85) and OLED screens (Samsung Display, South Korea; Japan Display, Japan) are the components with the best democratic origin in a typical smartphone. South Korea scores 8.09 on the EIU index and Japan 8.33, both full democracies. From Democratic Market's perspective, these components are not a concern.
What to look for when buying: the five-question checklist
- Does the manufacturer publish the complete list of its mineral suppliers and extraction countries? (Not just the final assembly country.)
- Is there an independent social audit of working conditions in the assembly factories? Is it publicly accessible?
- Is the device repairable? Longevity is the most effective way to reduce the impact of an opaque supply chain: the longer you use the same phone, the less conflict-zone extraction your consumption finances.
- Does the manufacturer have a mineral recycling programme? Recycled cobalt performs identically to virgin cobalt and avoids unregulated artisanal extraction.
- Does the average EIU score of the main components exceed 6.0? This is Democratic Market's criterion. If a manufacturer does not publish that information, the default answer is 'no'.
The Fairphone 5: the only one that passes all five filters today
Fairphone is the only smartphone company on the market that publishes, in a verifiable and up-to-date way, the data needed to answer all five questions above. The Fairphone 5 has a composite score of 7.8 on Democratic Market — flawed democracy, not full democracy — because assembly still takes place in China. But it is the only device on the market for which that figure is verifiable rather than opaque.
The Fairphone 5 also has the most repairable screen on the market (repairability score 9.3/10 according to iFixit), includes a removable battery, and the company offers spare parts for at least 10 years from launch. The Fairphone 5, released in 2023, was still receiving Android updates in 2026. This matters: a phone that lasts ten years instead of three reduces the cumulative impact of its supply chain by 70% per year of use.
A note of honesty about what we cannot guarantee
At Democratic Market we are transparent about the limits of our verification. The Fairphone 5 we include in our catalogue does not reach the full democracy threshold (8.0) because its composite score reflects the weight of assembly in China. We include it because it is the most transparent, most repairable product with the best documented traceability available on the market. Perfection does not exist in this category; verifiable transparency does.
The Fairphone 5 is available in the Democratic Market catalogue with its full Transparency Shield: components, countries of origin, EIU scores and verifiable sources. It is the only smartphone on the market with that level of public traceability.
This article was originally published at Democratic Market. Read the full version with additional analysis on our site.
