Countries by Regulatory Quality: Percentile Rank

Ranking 2023

Values shown in %.

Analysis

Regulatory quality percentile rank measures where a country sits relative to all others on the quality of its regulatory environment, expressed as a percentage from 0 to 100 where higher values indicate better performance. The underlying data come from the World Bank's Worldwide Governance Indicators (WGI), indicator code RQ.PER.RNK, for the year 2023. Per the source: '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].' The dataset covers 205 countries, all with data from the last seven years, and 100% of datapoints are classified as official quality. No extreme outliers were detected using a 3-standard-deviation threshold, and year-over-year volatility averages 8.9%, well within the 50% threshold.

The top of the ranking is dominated by high-income economies in Asia-Pacific, Western Europe, and North America. Singapore leads at 100.00%, followed by Australia (99.53%, rank 2), Luxembourg (99.06%, rank 3), New Zealand (98.58%, rank 4), and Denmark (98.11%, rank 5). The Netherlands (97.17%, rank 7), Finland (96.70%, rank 8), Switzerland (95.75%, rank 10), and Canada (94.81%, rank 12) also rank in the top fifteen. The United States places 20th at 90.57%. Among non-Western economies, Macao SAR, China places 6th at 97.64% and Hong Kong SAR, China places 14th at 93.87%, standing notably higher than mainland China, which ranks 123rd at 38.68%.

The middle of the ranking includes a wide mix of upper-middle and lower-middle income economies. Chile leads Latin America at rank 44 (76.89%), while Brazil ranks 120th at 40.09% and Argentina ranks 130th at 35.38%. Rwanda (rank 88, 56.13%) is the highest-ranked sub-Saharan African country in the dataset. Notably, three countries share an identical score of 89.62% at rank 22: Andorra, Monaco, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. At the lower end, Venezuela ranks 201st at 1.89%, Turkmenistan ranks 202nd at 1.42%, South Sudan ranks 203rd at 0.94%, and Eritrea ranks 204th at 0.47%, just above North Korea's score of 0.00%. Russia ranks 178th at 12.74%, placing it among the lowest-scoring large economies.

This metric reflects perception-based assessments drawn from enterprise, citizen, and expert surveys, which means rankings capture reported views rather than directly observed regulatory outcomes. Countries with limited survey coverage or restricted information environments may be scored based on fewer underlying data points, which can affect precision. Composite indicators that aggregate multiple sources can smooth over within-country variation across sectors or regions. Scores are percentile ranks relative to the full 205-country sample, so a country's rank can shift even if its underlying score does not change, simply because other countries' scores move. The dataset does not distinguish between types of regulatory quality, such as environmental versus business regulation, nor does it capture subnational variation.

Methodology

Data are drawn from the World Bank World Development Indicators, indicator code RQ.PER.RNK, for the reference year 2023. The metric is a percentile rank (0-100%, higher is better) derived from the Worldwide Governance Indicators. Per the source note: '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].' The ranking covers 205 countries, all meeting the recency threshold with data from the last seven years (100% recency rate). All 205 datapoints are classified as official quality, exceeding the 70% threshold. The data range runs from 0.00% to 100.00%, a spread of 100 percentage points. No extreme outliers were detected at the 3-standard-deviation threshold. Average year-over-year change is 8.9%, indicating moderate stability. Microstates represent 0% of the sample. Scores reflect aggregated perceptions and should be interpreted accordingly.

Sources

• World Bank