Methods

Worldwide Governance Indicators

Six broad dimensions of governance for more than 200 economies since 1996, as estimates and 0–100 scores.

World Bank · The publisher's page · All methods

What it looks at

Combines other sources · Surveys of perception — How it is seen

Coverage: More than 200 economies, 1996 to 2025 (the 2026 update).

What it is made of

  • Voice and Accountability
  • Political Stability
  • Government Effectiveness
  • Regulatory Quality
  • Rule of Law
  • Control of Corruption

It takes inputs from: Perception data from 35 cross-country sources: household surveys, firm surveys and expert assessments

May its data be shown here?

May be shown

CC BY 4.0 allows showing and charting the aggregate figures with attribution. The third-party source data is a separate file the licence does not clearly cover.

The publisher's terms, quotedLicense: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 … This dataset is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0.

Questions to ask of it

  • Which sources does it combine, and does any of them count twice (the same survey feeding two parts)?
  • Are the weights argued for or simply chosen? A ranking that changes when the weights change says more about the weights than the countries; on Solon you can set your own.
  • Whose perception: business people, residents, experts abroad? Perception can lag or lead what actually happens.
  • Does it mix what the law says with what happens? Solon keeps those apart, so a gap between them shows instead of averaging away.
  • Its inputs carry their own choices and licences, listed above.
  • Some of how it works has not been read yet; until it is, judge it on what is listed.

Not read yet

These are left open rather than filled in from memory.

  • The definition of each of the six dimensions
  • How the 35 sources are weighted in the aggregate

Read these figures with help

The facts below are worked out by program from this page's figures, with no AI. The explanation, if you ask for one, is written by an AI from these facts only, and is checked against them before you see it.

The facts, in plain words

  1. F1Worldwide Governance Indicators, published by World Bank, says it measures: Six broad dimensions of governance for more than 200 economies since 1996, as estimates and 0–100 scores.
  2. F2How it is made: composite, perception. What it looks at: perception.
  3. F3Its parts, as the publisher names them: Voice and Accountability; Political Stability; Government Effectiveness; Regulatory Quality; Rule of Law; Control of Corruption.
  4. F4Coverage: More than 200 economies, 1996 to 2025 (the 2026 update).
  5. F5It takes inputs from: Perception data from 35 cross-country sources: household surveys, firm surveys and expert assessments.
  6. F6Licence: loadable. The terms say: "License: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 … This dataset is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0." CC BY 4.0 allows showing and charting the aggregate figures with attribution. The third-party source data is a separate file the licence does not clearly cover.
  7. F7Not read yet: The definition of each of the six dimensions.
  8. F8Not read yet: How the 35 sources are weighted in the aggregate.
  9. F9A question to ask of it: Which sources does it combine, and does any count twice?
  10. F10A question to ask of it: Are the weights argued for or simply chosen, and does the ranking survive other weights?
  11. F11A question to ask of it: Whose perception does it measure?
  12. F12A question to ask of it: Does it mix what the law says with what happens?
  13. F13A question to ask of it: Its inputs carry their own choices and licences.
  14. F14A question to ask of it: Part of how it works has not been read yet.
  15. F15Source read on 2026-11-09: World Bank: Worldwide Governance Indicators (publication page, with its usage advisory).
  16. F16Source read on 2026-11-09: World Bank Data Catalog: Worldwide Governance Indicators.

Where this description comes from