Countries by Rule of Law: Percentile Rank, Lower Bound of 90% Confidence Interval

Ranking 2023

Values shown in %.

Analysis

This metric reports the lower bound of the 90% confidence interval for each country's percentile rank on the Rule of Law indicator, sourced from the World Bank World Development Indicators (indicator code: RL.PER.RNK.LOWER, data year 2023). The unit is percentage, and higher values indicate stronger rule of law. The confidence interval lower bound means the reported figure is a conservative estimate: the true percentile rank is likely at or above this value. 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 at the 3-sigma threshold, and average year-over-year change is 12.1%, well within the 50% volatility threshold.

The top of the ranking is dominated by Northern and Western European countries. Finland ranks first at 95.28%, followed by Denmark at 93.87% and Norway at 92.45%. Austria, Luxembourg, and Singapore are tied at rank 4 with 91.51%, making Singapore the only non-European country in the top six. New Zealand and Switzerland share rank 7 at 89.62%, and the top 20 includes Estonia at rank 18 with 84.91%, alongside Canada, Australia, Japan, Germany, and the United Kingdom. The United States places 21st at 83.02%.

The middle of the ranking shows notable variation. Georgia sits at rank 87 with exactly 50.00%. India ranks 86th at 50.94%, and China ranks 94th at 41.04%. Several small island states, including Dominica, Grenada, and Tuvalu, score in the 54-65% range, ranking above larger economies. Hong Kong SAR, China ranks 22nd at 82.08%, notably higher than mainland China at rank 94. At the lower end, Mexico ranks 154th at 15.57%, Ukraine ranks 159th at 13.21%, and Russia ranks 178th at 6.60%. The bottom cluster, scoring 0.00%, includes Somalia, South Sudan, the Syrian Arab Republic, and Venezuela.

Because this metric reports the lower bound of a confidence interval rather than a point estimate, countries with wider uncertainty ranges will appear more conservative relative to their central estimate. This particularly affects smaller or less-surveyed countries where data from enterprise, citizen, and expert surveys may be sparse. Tied ranks are common throughout the dataset, reflecting the resolution limits of the underlying scoring methodology. The metric captures governance perceptions rather than direct legal outcomes, meaning it may not fully reflect recent legal reforms or deteriorations. Countries in conflict or with limited survey access may have lower data reliability.

Methodology

The metric is the lower bound of the 90% confidence interval for the Rule of Law percentile rank, drawn from the World Bank World Development Indicators, indicator code RL.PER.RNK.LOWER, for data year 2023. The unit is percent (%), and higher values indicate stronger rule of law. 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, monitored, and replaced. Coverage: 205 countries with data, exceeding the 80-country threshold. Recency: 100% of countries have data from the last seven years. Data quality: 100% of datapoints are official. Outliers: 0 extreme outliers detected at the 3-sigma threshold. Volatility: average year-over-year change of 12.1%, within the 50% threshold. The score range runs from 0.00% to 95.28%. Because the lower-bound estimate is used, results are conservative and confidence interval width varies by country, which can affect comparability.

Sources

• World Bank