World Governance Index


The Worldwide Governance Indicators is a project that reports both aggregate and individual governance indicators for over 200 countries and territories covering the period from 1996 to 2021. It considers six dimensions of governance:
  • Voice and Accountability
  • Political Stability and Absence of Violence/Terrorism
  • Government Effectiveness
  • Regulatory Quality
  • Rule of Law
  • Control of Corruption
These aggregate indicators are based on the views of a large number of enterprise, citizen, and expert survey respondents in both industrial and developing countries. The indicators draw from over 30 individual data sources produced by a variety of survey institutes, think tanks, non-governmental organizations, international organizations, and private sector firms.
The 2022 WGI update includes significant revisions to the underlying source data, which affect the data for earlier years in the WGI dataset. This latest release supersedes previous releases.

Background

Creating a set of indicators for the World Governance Index is a comprehensive and complex process. The objective is to measure a modern concept that, despite its historical roots, is currently applied in certain frameworks and implemented by identified entities. Although there is agreement on diagnosing its challenges, it is still far from being fully "stabilized".
Drawing from the United Nations Millennium Declaration, which was unanimously adopted by heads of state and government in 2000, a team of researchers from the , consisting of Gustavo Marín, Arnaud Blin, and Renaud François, concentrated their research on five core concepts that outline the application framework of world governance and represent key objectives to be achieved by 2015:
The research team considered its mission with two goals in mind:
  • The first was to create a World Governance Index providing an overall picture of world governance at time T based on data obtained for the 179 countries included in the survey. The WGI combines 5 indicators, each made up of 13 sub-indicators, each of those made up of 37 indexes. These indexes were selected from among the best available databases. They are all provided by recognized sources, well known for their quality, seriousness, and reliability.
IndicatorSub-indicatorIndex
Peace / SecurityNational SecurityConflicts
Peace / SecurityNational SecurityRefugees / Asylum Seekers
Peace / SecurityNational SecurityDisplaced Persons
Peace / SecurityPublic SecurityPolitical climate
Peace / SecurityPublic SecurityDegree of trust
Peace / SecurityPublic SecurityViolent Crime
Peace / SecurityPublic SecurityHomicides / inhabitants
Rule of LawBody of LawsRatification of International Treaties
Rule of LawBody of LawsProtection of Property Rights
Rule of LawLegal SystemIndependence
Rule of LawLegal SystemEffectiveness
Rule of LawLegal SystemSettlement of Contractual Disputes
Rule of LawCorruptionCorruption Perceptions Index
Human Rights / ParticipationCivil and Political RightsRespect of Civil Rights
Human Rights / ParticipationCivil and Political RightsRespect of Physical Integrity Rights
Human Rights / ParticipationCivil and Political RightsFreedom of the Press
Human Rights / ParticipationCivil and Political RightsViolence against the Press
Human Rights / ParticipationParticipationParticipation in Political Life
Human Rights / ParticipationParticipationElectoral Process and Pluralism
Human Rights / ParticipationParticipationPolitical Culture
Human Rights / ParticipationDiscrimination / Gender InequalitiesWomen's Political Rights
Human Rights / ParticipationDiscrimination / Gender InequalitiesWomen's Social Rights
Human Rights / ParticipationDiscrimination / Gender InequalitiesWomen's Economic Rights
Human Rights / ParticipationDiscrimination / Gender InequalitiesFemale Parliamentary Rate
Sustainable DevelopmentEconomic SectorGross Domestic Product per capita
Sustainable DevelopmentEconomic SectorGDP Growth Rate
Sustainable DevelopmentEconomic SectorInflation Rate
Sustainable DevelopmentEconomic SectorEase in starting a business
Sustainable DevelopmentSocial DimensionPoverty Rate / Inequalities
Sustainable DevelopmentSocial DimensionUnemployment Rate
Sustainable DevelopmentSocial DimensionRatification of International Labor Law Treaties
Sustainable DevelopmentEnvironmental DimensionEcological Footprint / Biocapacity
Sustainable DevelopmentEnvironmental DimensionEnvironmental Sustainability
Sustainable DevelopmentEnvironmental DimensionEnvironmental Performance Index
Human DevelopmentDevelopmentHuman Development
Human DevelopmentWell-being / HappinessSubjective Well-being
Human DevelopmentWell-being / HappinessHappiness

  • The second goal is to motivate world-governance actors to consider the resulting WGI and the relative importance of the different indicators. This should allow them to identify the "key" or "pilot" indicators that will set up the conditions for good world governance and, more importantly, guarantee their sustainability. The ultimate goal of this study is part of a long-term process. On the basis of the situation described by the WGI and of its diagnosis, it should allow actors in charge of governance to raise the right questions in order to consider solutions.

    Methodology and databases

The 37 indexes constituting the WGI have been set on a scale from zero to one, a scale similar to the one developed by the United Nations Development Programme for its Human Development Index.
Although some of the indexes used were drawn from databases that had not been updated since 2007, the 2008 World Governance Index nevertheless reflects the state of world governance in 2008.
The regional rankings are inspired from UNDP classification. The 179 countries surveyed in this study —microstates were deliberately not included in this list – were grouped into six regional subgroups: