Countries by Voice and Accountability: Number of Sources
Four countries — Ghana, Liberia, Mozambique, and Nigeria — share the top rank with 14 sources each in the 2023 Voice and Accountability: Number of Sources metric. At the bottom, 12 territories and small states record just 1 source, producing a range of 1 to 14 across 203 countries. That 1,300% spread indicates substantial variation in how many independent data points underpin each country's governance score.
Ranking 2023
Analysis
This metric counts the number of underlying data sources used to compute a country's Voice and Accountability score within the Worldwide Governance Indicators dataset. More sources generally mean a more robust and reliable score. According to the source note, the Worldwide Governance Indicators summarize '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 includes 'the traditions and institutions by which authority in a country is exercised,' including 'the process by which governments are selected.' The unit is an absolute count of sources, and higher values are considered better because they reflect greater data coverage. The dataset covers 203 countries, all with data from 2023, meeting the 80-country coverage threshold. No extreme outliers were identified at the 3-sigma level, and average year-over-year change is 4.6%, indicating stable coverage over time.
The top of the ranking is dominated by African and Latin American countries. Ghana, Liberia, Mozambique, and Nigeria all score 14 (Rank 1), while 22 additional countries including Brazil, Kenya, Mexico, Senegal, South Africa, and Uganda score 13 (Rank 5). This pattern suggests that countries with active civil society survey networks, international monitoring programs, and large populations tend to attract more data sources. The next tier at 12 sources (Rank 27) includes Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Egypt, India, and Kazakhstan, among others, showing broad geographic spread at that level.
A notable anomaly appears in the middle ranks: several high-income Western democracies score lower than might be expected. The United States, France, Germany, Sweden, and the United Kingdom all fall between Rank 43 and Rank 73, with scores of 10 or 11 sources, while countries such as Togo (Rank 5, score 13) and Mauritania (Rank 43, score 11) score comparably or higher. At the bottom, small island states and territories dominate: American Samoa, Aruba, Cayman Islands, Guam, Monaco, and Nauru all record just 1 source (Rank 192). Switzerland and Iceland score 7 (Rank 155), lower than Chad (Rank 73, score 10) and Nicaragua (Rank 73, score 10).
This metric measures source count, not governance quality itself. A country with many sources is not necessarily better governed; it simply has more data inputs feeding its score. Countries with fewer sources have scores based on thinner evidence, which may reduce statistical reliability. Small island states and territories frequently appear at the bottom because fewer surveys target them. The metric also does not distinguish between source types or their independence. Consistency is high at 99.0% for 2023, but two countries lack data from the latest year, and the source count can change as new surveys are added or discontinued, making direct year-to-year comparisons of individual country rankings imprecise.
Methodology
Metric: Voice and Accountability: Number of Sources. Indicator code: VA.NO.SRC. Data source: World Bank World Development Indicators. Data year: 2023. Unit: absolute count of underlying data sources. Higher values are better. The indicator draws on the Worldwide Governance Indicators, which, per the source note, 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,' where governance includes 'the traditions and institutions by which authority in a country is exercised,' including 'the process by which governments are selected.' Coverage: 203 countries, all meeting the recency threshold (100% have data from the last 7 years), with 99.0% consistency in the 2023 data year. All data points are classified as official quality (100%). No extreme outliers were found at the 3-sigma threshold. The value range is 1 to 14, a 1,300% spread. Average year-over-year change is 4.6%, indicating stable source counts. Microstates account for 0% of the sample. The metric reflects source availability, not governance outcomes directly.