Countries by Government Effectiveness: Percentile Rank, Upper Bound of 90% Confidence Interval

Ranking 2023

Values shown in %.

Analysis

This metric reports the upper bound of the 90% confidence interval for a country's government effectiveness percentile rank, as estimated by the World Bank's Worldwide Governance Indicators. The source note states that 'good governance is essential for development. It helps countries improve economic growth, build human capital, and strengthen social cohesion. Empirical evidence shows a strong causal relationship between better governance and better development outcomes. The Worldwide Governance Indicators (WGI) are designed to help researchers and analysts assess broad patterns in perceptions of governance across' countries. Values are expressed as percentages on a 0-to-100 scale, where higher values indicate a higher estimated upper bound of the effectiveness percentile rank. The dataset covers 205 countries for the data year 2023, with 100% of observations sourced from official data and 100% of countries providing data from within the last seven years. No extreme outliers were identified using a 3-standard-deviation threshold.

The top of the ranking is dominated by Western European nations, wealthy city-states, and a small number of high-income economies in other regions. The five countries tied at rank 1 with 100% are Denmark, Luxembourg, Monaco, Singapore, and Switzerland. Andorra, Finland, Liechtenstein, and Norway follow at rank 6 with 99.53%. Australia, Bermuda, Ireland, Japan, the Netherlands, San Marino, Sweden, and the United Arab Emirates are all tied at rank 10 with 99.06%. Notably, the United Arab Emirates appears at rank 10 alongside predominantly Western nations, and Brunei Darussalam joins Canada, Hong Kong SAR, Iceland, and New Zealand at rank 18 with 98.11%. These placements reflect scores at or near the ceiling of the confidence interval upper bound.

The middle of the ranking shows considerable variation across regions. Georgia (rank 45, 88.68%) and Rwanda (rank 78, 76.42%) are among the higher-placed sub-Saharan African or post-Soviet states. China ranks 58th with 82.08%, placing it between Latvia and Mauritius at the same rank. In the lower-middle portion, countries such as South Africa (rank 125, 55.66%), Ukraine (rank 125, 55.66%), and Brazil (rank 139, 44.81%) sit well below the global midpoint. The bottom quarter includes countries affected by conflict and political instability: Somalia and Sudan are joint 201st at 5.19%, Haiti ranks 203rd at 3.30%, and South Sudan and Yemen share last place at rank 204 with 2.36%. North Korea appears at rank 187 with 15.09%, ranking below Iraq (rank 185, 17.92%) and above Guinea-Bissau and Lebanon (both at rank 189, 13.21%).

Several limitations apply to this metric. The indicator reports the upper bound of a confidence interval rather than a point estimate, meaning it systematically overstates the central estimate of each country's percentile rank. Rankings based on upper bounds may compress differences at the top and overrepresent small or well-documented territories. Countries with limited available data may have wider confidence intervals, producing higher or lower upper bounds that do not reflect actual governance levels. The measure captures perceptions of governance rather than directly observed administrative outcomes, making it sensitive to the composition and coverage of underlying data sources. Very small territories and dependent jurisdictions — including Bermuda, Guam, and American Samoa — appear alongside sovereign states, which limits direct comparability. The range spans from 2.36% to 100.00%, a spread of over 4,100%, indicating substantial but expected heterogeneity across the 205 included countries.

Methodology

The metric is drawn from the World Bank World Development Indicators, indicator code GE.PER.RNK.UPPER, for the data year 2023. It represents the upper bound of the 90% confidence interval for a country's percentile rank on the Government Effectiveness dimension of the Worldwide Governance Indicators. The source note defines the context as follows: 'good governance is essential for development. It helps countries improve economic growth, build human capital, and strengthen social cohesion. Empirical evidence shows a strong causal relationship between better governance and better development outcomes. The Worldwide Governance Indicators (WGI) are designed to help researchers and analysts assess broad patterns in perceptions of governance across' countries. The dataset covers 205 countries, all with data from within the last seven years (2023), meeting the recency threshold. All 205 data points are classified as official quality, surpassing the 70% quality threshold. No extreme outliers were detected at the 3-standard-deviation level. The average year-over-year change is 6.8%, well within the 50% volatility threshold. Values range from 2.36% (South Sudan, Yemen) to 100.00% (Denmark, Luxembourg, Monaco, Singapore, Switzerland), a spread of approximately 4,140%. Because this indicator reports a confidence interval upper bound rather than a central estimate, comparisons between countries should account for the fact that all reported values are above each country's most likely point estimate.

Sources

• World Bank