Countries by Rule of Law: Percentile Rank

Ranking 2023

Values shown in %.

Analysis

This metric measures each country's percentile rank on the Rule of Law indicator from the World Bank's Worldwide Governance Indicators (WGI), using indicator code RL.PER.RNK. The unit is a percentage representing where a country falls relative to all others, from 0 (lowest) to 100 (highest). A higher value indicates stronger rule of law. The WGI are, as defined in the source, '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,' where 'governance consists of the traditions and institutions by which authority in a country is exercised,' including 'the process by which governments are selected.' The dataset covers 205 countries for 2023, with 100% of data points classified as official and all 205 countries reporting data from within the last seven years. No extreme statistical outliers were identified at the 3-sigma threshold, and the average year-over-year change across the dataset is 7.4%.

The top of the ranking is dominated by Nordic and Western European countries. Finland (rank 1) scores 100%, followed by Denmark (rank 2) at 99.53% and Norway (rank 3) at 99.06%. Switzerland (rank 4, 98.58%) and Singapore (rank 5, 98.11%) round out the top five. The top ten also includes Luxembourg (rank 6, 97.64%), Austria (rank 7, 97.17%), Iceland (rank 8, 96.70%), Liechtenstein (rank 9, 96.23%), and New Zealand (rank 10, 95.75%). Canada ranks 21st at 90.09%, the United Kingdom ranks 23rd at 89.15%, and the United States ranks 24th at 88.68%.

The middle of the ranking shows considerable variation across regions. Sri Lanka sits exactly at the median, ranked 101st with a score of 50.00%. Nearby are Ghana (rank 102, 49.53%) and Armenia (rank 103, 49.06%). Notable placements include China at rank 95 with 52.83% and India at rank 88 with 56.13%. At the lower end, Mexico ranks 154th at 24.06% and Russia ranks 179th at 12.26%. The bottom ten includes Somalia (rank 205, 0.00%), Venezuela (rank 204, 0.47%), South Sudan (rank 203, 0.94%), Syria (rank 202, 1.42%), and Yemen (rank 201, 1.89%). Three countries share identical scores at ranks 18 through 20: Andorra, Monaco, and San Marino each score 91.51%.

Because this metric is a percentile rank rather than an absolute score, it reflects relative standing rather than an absolute measure of rule of law quality. A country's rank can shift even if its underlying governance does not change, simply because other countries improve or decline. The WGI aggregate survey and expert assessments, which introduces subjectivity and potential inconsistency across respondent groups. The source note acknowledges that the data summarizes views from diverse respondent types, which may weight certain governance dimensions differently across regions. Small territories and administrative zones such as Greenland (rank 11, 95.28%), Aruba (rank 27, 87.26%), and American Samoa (rank 30, 85.38%) appear in the ranking alongside sovereign states, which may limit direct comparability. Countries affected by active conflict or institutional collapse, such as those at the bottom of the ranking, may have especially limited data reliability.

Methodology

Data are drawn from the World Bank World Development Indicators under indicator code RL.PER.RNK, reflecting the 2023 reference year. The metric is the percentile rank on the Rule of Law dimension of the Worldwide Governance Indicators, expressed as a percentage from 0 to 100 where higher values indicate stronger relative rule of law. Per the source note, the 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,' and 'governance consists of the traditions and institutions by which authority in a country is exercised,' including 'the process by which governments are selected.' The ranking covers 205 countries, all of which have data from within the last seven years (100% recency). All 205 data points are classified as official quality (100%). No extreme outliers were detected at the 3-sigma threshold. The dataset spans the full percentile range from 0.00% to 100.00%, a spread of 100 percentage points. Average year-over-year change is 7.4%, well within the 50% volatility threshold. Because this is a relative percentile measure, country scores are not independent; a shift in one country's underlying score affects the ranks of all others.

Sources

• World Bank