Figure 4. Frequency of the term “academic freedom” in modern written English, 1830-2010, by decade
| Decade | Frequency |
|---|---|
| 1830 | 0.0024 |
| 1840 | 0.0026 |
| 1850 | 0.0036 |
| 1860 | 0.0049 |
| 1870 | 0.0079 |
| 1880 | 0.017 |
| 1890 | 0.039 |
| 1900 | 0.067 |
| 1910 | 0.14 |
| 1920 | 0.22 |
| 1930 | 0.39 |
| 1940 | 0.54 |
| 1950 | 0.71 |
| 1960 | 0.76 |
| 1970 | 0.82 |
| 1980 | 0.79 |
| 1990 | 0.75 |
| 2000 | 0.7 |
| 2010 | 0.73 |
Source: Oxford English Dictionary (online), “academic freedom (n.),” September 2024.
Note: The frequency is the occurrence of the term per one million words written in English. The OED smoothed the data using a moving average.