• Worldwide Governance Indicators

    A global compilation of data capturing household, business, and citizen perceptions of the quality of governance in more than 200 economies.

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Overview

Good governance is essential for development. It helps countries increase economic growth, build human capital, and strengthen social cohesion. The Worldwide Governance Indicators (WGI) describe broad patterns in perceptions of the quality of governance across countries and over time.

The WGI are based on existing data sources produced by more than 30 think tanks, international organizations, nongovernmental organizations, and private firms around the world. The data sources (1) produce original primary data using their own well-defined methodologies, (2) report respondents’ perceptions of relevant dimensions of governance, (3) cover multiple countries, and (4) are regularly updated.  The data reflect the diverse views of tens of thousands of survey respondents and experts worldwide.

The WGI combine these into aggregate indicators of six dimensions of governance for over 200 economies over the period 1996–2023:

Click here for a non-technical summary of the WGI methodology. For a complete description of the WGI methodology, please refer to the WGI methodology paper.

We welcome feedback from users, including suggestions for additional data sources.  Please email feedback and questions to wgi@worldbank.org. The WGI are updated annually each September with data through the previous calendar year.

    How to access the WGI data

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    How to use the WGI

    The WGI are intended for general cross-country comparisons of governance and for evaluating broad trends over time. Measuring governance is difficult, and the WGI include margins of error that transparently indicate the unavoidable imprecision in empirical measures of governance. These margins of error should be considered when comparing governance across countries and over time. When evaluations of the governance reforms of specific countries are required, the WGI should be supplemented with more detailed country-specific information. Please refer to the Usage Advisory for more information, as well as the findings of an external review of the WGI conducted in 2024.

    How to Cite this Dataset

    Worldwide Governance Indicators, 2024 Update, World Bank (www.govindicators.org), Accessed on 10/30/2024.