Countries by Government Effectiveness: Number of Sources

Ghana ranks 1st out of 205 countries with a government effectiveness source count of 13, the highest recorded in the 2023 dataset. At the other end, ten territories and small states including American Samoa, Andorra, and Bermuda record just 1 source each. The gap between top and bottom reflects how broadly or narrowly each country is covered by the underlying surveys and expert assessments that feed into the Worldwide Governance Indicators.

Governance category

Ranking 2023

Countries by Government Effectiveness: Number of Sources
Rank	Country	Value
1	Ghana	13
2	Côte d'Ivoire	12
2	Sierra Leone	12
2	Tanzania	12
5	Cameroon	11
5	Gambia	11
5	Kenya	11
5	Lesotho	11
5	Liberia	11
5	Madagascar	11
5	Malawi	11
5	Mali	11
5	Nigeria	11
5	Senegal	11
5	Togo	11
5	Zimbabwe	11
17	Bangladesh	10
17	Benin	10
17	Burkina Faso	10
17	Chad	10
17	DR Congo	10
17	Guinea	10
17	Morocco	10
17	Mozambique	10
17	Niger	10
17	Pakistan	10
17	Uganda	10
17	Zambia	10
29	Botswana	9
29	Bulgaria	9
29	Cambodia	9
29	Colombia	9
29	El Salvador	9
29	Estonia	9
29	Ethiopia	9
29	Honduras	9
29	Hungary	9
29	India	9
29	Indonesia	9
29	Kyrgyzstan	9
29	Mauritania	9
29	Mexico	9
29	Mongolia	9
29	Nepal	9
29	Peru	9
29	Philippines	9
29	Romania	9
29	Rwanda	9
29	Slovakia	9
29	South Africa	9
29	Sudan	9
29	Tunisia	9
53	Angola	8
53	Argentina	8
53	Austria	8
53	Bolivia	8
53	Brazil	8
53	Central African Republic	8
53	Chile	8
53	Republic of Congo	8
53	Costa Rica	8
53	Croatia	8
53	Czechia	8
53	Egypt	8
53	France	8
53	Germany	8
53	Greece	8
53	Laos	8
53	Latvia	8
53	Lithuania	8
53	Mauritius	8
53	Paraguay	8
53	Poland	8
53	Portugal	8
53	Saudi Arabia	8
53	Singapore	8
53	Slovenia	8
53	Spain	8
53	Uzbekistan	8
53	Venezuela	8
53	Vietnam	8
82	Algeria	7
82	Bahrain	7
82	Belgium	7
82	Burundi	7
82	Cabo Verde	7
82	China	7
82	Cyprus	7
82	Denmark	7
82	Djibouti	7
82	Dominican Republic	7
82	Ecuador	7
82	Eritrea	7
82	Eswatini	7
82	Finland	7
82	Gabon	7
82	Guatemala	7
82	Guinea-Bissau	7
82	Hong Kong	7
82	Ireland	7
82	Italy	7
82	Jordan	7
82	Kazakhstan	7
82	South Korea	7
82	Kuwait	7
82	Luxembourg	7
82	Malaysia	7
82	Namibia	7
82	Netherlands	7
82	New Zealand	7
82	Panama	7
82	Papua New Guinea	7
82	Sao Tome and Principe	7
82	Somalia	7
82	Sri Lanka	7
82	Sweden	7
82	Tajikistan	7
82	Thailand	7
82	Türkiye	7
82	United Arab Emirates	7
82	Uruguay	7
82	Yemen	7
123	Afghanistan	6
123	Albania	6
123	Armenia	6
123	Australia	6
123	Bhutan	6
123	Bosnia and Herzegovina	6
123	Canada	6
123	Comoros	6
123	Georgia	6
123	Haiti	6
123	Iceland	6
123	Iran	6
123	Iraq	6
123	Israel	6
123	Jamaica	6
123	Japan	6
123	Kosovo	6
123	Libya	6
123	Malta	6
123	Montenegro	6
123	Myanmar	6
123	Nicaragua	6
123	North Macedonia	6
123	Qatar	6
123	Serbia	6
123	South Sudan	6
123	Switzerland	6
123	Timor-Leste	6
123	Ukraine	6
123	United Kingdom	6
123	United States	6
154	Azerbaijan	5
154	Lebanon	5
154	Moldova	5
154	Norway	5
154	Oman	5
154	Russia	5
154	Syria	5
154	Trinidad and Tobago	5
154	Vanuatu	5
163	Barbados	4
163	Belarus	4
163	Cuba	4
163	Equatorial Guinea	4
163	Guyana	4
163	North Korea	4
163	Puerto Rico	4
163	Samoa	4
163	Seychelles	4
163	Solomon Islands	4
163	Palestine	4
174	Bahamas	3
174	Brunei	3
174	Fiji	3
174	Kiribati	3
174	Maldives	3
174	Marshall Islands	3
174	Micronesia	3
174	Suriname	3
174	Tonga	3
174	Turkmenistan	3
174	Tuvalu	3
185	Aruba	2
185	Belize	2
185	Cayman Islands	2
185	Dominica	2
185	Grenada	2
185	Liechtenstein	2
185	Macao	2
185	Nauru	2
185	Palau	2
185	Saint Lucia	2
185	Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	2
196	American Samoa	1
196	Andorra	1
196	Antigua and Barbuda	1
196	Bermuda	1
196	Greenland	1
196	Guam	1
196	Monaco	1
196	San Marino	1
196	Saint Kitts and Nevis	1
196	U.S. Virgin Islands	1

Analysis

This metric counts the number of individual data sources used to estimate government effectiveness for each country under the World Bank's Worldwide Governance Indicators framework. The indicator code is GE.NO.SRC, and values are expressed as absolute counts. According to the source definition: 'The Worldwide Governance Indicators (WGI) are a research dataset summarizing the views on the quality of governance provided by a large number of enterprise, citizen and expert survey respondents in industrial and developing countries. Governance consists of the traditions and institutions by which authority in a country is exercised. This includes the process by which governments are selected, mo[nitored, and replaced].' A higher source count means more data inputs were available when constructing a country's governance estimate, not that governance quality is higher. The 2023 dataset covers 205 countries, meeting the 80-country coverage threshold, with 100% of data points classified as official and zero extreme outliers detected at the 3-standard-deviation threshold.

Ghana tops the ranking at 13 sources, followed by Cote d'Ivoire, Sierra Leone, and Tanzania, each at 12 (ranks 2-2-2). Twelve countries share rank 5 with a count of 11, all of them in Sub-Saharan Africa, including Nigeria, Kenya, Senegal, and Zimbabwe. A further 12 countries occupy ranks 17 through 28 at 10 sources, again heavily concentrated in Africa with Bangladesh and Pakistan as notable exceptions. The pattern at the top of the ranking is a strong African presence, which reflects the comparatively large number of surveys and expert panels that target governance in lower-income and aid-recipient countries.

The middle of the ranking, from 8 to 9 sources, includes a wide mix of income levels and regions. Countries at rank 29 with 9 sources include India, Indonesia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Estonia, Hungary, and Rwanda, alongside Colombia and Mexico. At 8 sources (ranks 53 through 81) sit major economies including Germany, France, Spain, and Singapore alongside Bolivia, Angola, and Paraguay. High-income countries with strong institutional reputations such as Denmark, Finland, Sweden, New Zealand, and Australia appear in the 6 to 7 range, meaning they have fewer contributing sources than many lower-income African nations. Countries at the very bottom, recording just 1 source each, are almost entirely small territories or microstates such as Andorra, Monaco, Greenland, and Guam.

The primary limitation of this metric is that it measures data availability, not governance quality. A high source count reflects greater survey and expert coverage, which is often correlated with international attention to fragile or aid-dependent states rather than with strong institutions. Countries with few sources, including some high-income small states, may have genuinely limited data rather than poor governance. The range spans from 1 to 13 (a 1,200% spread), which the viability checks flag explicitly, and the average year-over-year change is 4.0%, indicating relative stability. Because all 205 data points come from a single methodology with a uniform official-data classification, cross-country comparisons of the source count reflect coverage decisions made by the WGI project rather than independently verifiable country characteristics.

Methodology

Metric: Government Effectiveness Number of Sources. Indicator code: GE.NO.SRC. Data source: World Bank World Development Indicators. Data year: 2023. Unit: absolute count of sources. Higher values indicate broader data coverage. The source definition states: 'The Worldwide Governance Indicators (WGI) are a research dataset summarizing the views on the quality of governance provided by a large number of enterprise, citizen and expert survey respondents in industrial and developing countries. Governance consists of the traditions and institutions by which authority in a country is exercised. This includes the process by which governments are selected, mo[nitored, and replaced].' Coverage: 205 countries, exceeding the 80-country threshold. Recency: 100% of countries have data from within the last 7 years. Data quality: 100% of data points are classified as official. Outliers: 0 extreme outliers detected at the 3-sigma threshold. Volatility: average year-over-year change is 4.0%, well below the 50% threshold. Value range: 1 to 13, representing a 1,200% spread. Microstates (population under 1 million) account for 0% of the sample by the dataset's classification. This metric does not measure governance effectiveness itself; it measures only the number of source inputs used in the WGI estimation process for each country.

Sources

World Bank