Countries by Political Stability and Absence of Violence/Terrorism: Number of Sources

India, Mexico, New Zealand, and Singapore share the top rank in this metric, each recorded with 9 sources contributing to their political stability and absence of violence/terrorism assessment in 2023. At the other end, American Samoa stands alone at rank 205 with just 1 source. The gap between 9 and 1 reflects how unevenly the underlying governance survey infrastructure covers different countries and territories.

Governance category

Ranking 2023

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

Analysis

This metric counts the number of data sources used to construct each country's Political Stability and Absence of Violence/Terrorism score under the Worldwide Governance Indicators. The unit is an absolute value representing source count, and higher values indicate more sources contributing to the estimate. According to the source note, the Worldwide Governance Indicators 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]. The 2023 dataset covers 205 countries, meeting the 80-country coverage threshold. All 205 datapoints come from official sources, and 100 percent of countries have data from the last seven years. No extreme outliers were detected at the three-standard-deviation threshold, and average year-over-year change was 4.7 percent, well below the 50 percent volatility threshold.

The four top-ranked countries, India (rank 1, value 9), Mexico (rank 1, value 9), New Zealand (rank 1, value 9), and Singapore (rank 1, value 9), each draw on the maximum recorded number of sources in this dataset. A large cluster of 32 countries follows at rank 5 with 8 sources, including Australia, the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, China, Brazil, and Saudi Arabia. These are predominantly large economies or globally prominent states for which major survey programs and expert assessments routinely collect governance data. A second large cluster of 44 countries sits at rank 37 with 7 sources, including Canada, Japan, Sweden, Nigeria, South Africa, and Turkey, reflecting continued broad but slightly less comprehensive coverage.

The middle of the ranking, ranks 81 through 139, comprises 59 countries with 6 sources each, spanning a wide range of governance contexts: Switzerland and Iceland sit alongside Iraq, Haiti, Sudan, and Myanmar at the same source count of 6. Countries ranked 140 through 163 record 5 sources, including Afghanistan, Somalia, Syria, Libya, and Yemen alongside smaller or less-surveyed states such as Brunei and Samoa. The bottom tiers show smaller and more isolated territories: ranks 189 through 199 record 3 sources and include Andorra, Monaco, San Marino, South Sudan, and several Pacific island states. Ranks 200 through 204 record 2 sources and include Bermuda, Greenland, Guam, Macao SAR China, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. American Samoa stands alone at rank 205 with 1 source.

A key limitation of this metric is that it measures data availability rather than governance outcomes. A country with 9 sources is not necessarily more stable or less violent than one with 3; it simply has more survey and expert inputs feeding into its score. Territories and smaller jurisdictions are structurally disadvantaged because fewer global survey instruments reach them. Source counts are also not directly comparable across years without examining which specific sources were added or removed. The metric does not capture the quality, recency, or representativeness of individual sources, only their count. Rankings tied at the same value, such as the 32-country cluster at rank 5 or the 59-country cluster at rank 81, cannot be differentiated using this indicator alone.

Methodology

Metric: Political Stability and Absence of Violence/Terrorism: Number of Sources. Indicator code: PV.NO.SRC. Data source: World Bank World Development Indicators, drawing on the Worldwide Governance Indicators research dataset. Definition per source note: the Worldwide Governance Indicators 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]. Unit: absolute value (count of sources). Higher values are better. Data year: 2023. Country coverage: 205 countries, exceeding the 80-country threshold. Recency: 100 percent of countries have data from the last seven years. Data quality: 100 percent of datapoints are classified as official. Outliers: zero extreme outliers detected at the three-standard-deviation threshold. Volatility: average year-over-year change of 4.7 percent, below the 50 percent threshold. Value range: 1 to 9, a spread of 800 percent. Microstates under one million population: 0 of 205.

Sources

World Bank