WJP Rule of Law Index 2024: Which Countries Lead in Justice and Accountability?

The Top Countries in the WJP Rule of Law Index 2024

The World Justice Project’s Rule of Law Index 2024, published in October 2024, scores 142 countries from 0 to 1. Denmark is first on 0.90, followed by Norway on 0.89, Finland on 0.87 and Sweden on 0.86, so the four Nordic countries take the first four ranks. Austria closes this chart in 13th place on 0.79. Most of the thirteen are in western Europe, with New Zealand, Australia and Canada the exceptions. Estonia, 10th, is the only one from central or eastern Europe. At the other end of the same table, Venezuela was ranked last.

Eight Factors, One Average

The principle is that nobody, including the government, stands above the law, the law is applied to everyone in the same way, and people can get disputes and crimes settled fairly. The WJP surveyed more than 214,000 households and 3,500 lawyers and other experts. Their answers are grouped into eight factors: constraints on government powers, absence of corruption, open government, fundamental rights, order and security, regulatory enforcement, civil justice and criminal justice.

The overall score is the plain average of the eight. It works like a household in which each member has a job: if one stops doing it, the whole house feels it. A country with fast, honest courts but a weak press or tight limits on protest loses points on those factors, and the average shows it.

Four Countries on 0.83, Four Separate Ranks

Germany, New Zealand, Luxembourg and the Netherlands are all printed at 0.83, yet they hold ranks 5 to 8 rather than a shared place. The same happens to Ireland and Estonia on 0.82 and to Australia and Canada on 0.80. The publisher prints two decimals but ranks on its unrounded scores, so these are not ties, only gaps too small to print.

The World Bank Puts the Same Countries Near the Top

Instead of the WJP index, this site holds the World Bank’s Rule of Law estimate, a different measure from a different publisher, built from many outside sources on a scale of −2.5 to 2.5. The two scores cannot be compared; only their orderings can, and carefully. In the Bank’s 2025 edition, all thirteen countries on this chart are among the 22 highest readings of 211. Finland has the highest, Denmark the second and Norway the third. Venezuela has the lowest, and it is also last in the WJP table. Some places the Bank scores above several of the thirteen, such as Liechtenstein, Monaco and Greenland, are not among the 142 countries the WJP surveys.

Strong Government, Limited Voice

Singapore has the highest government effectiveness reading of 209 in the Bank’s 2025 edition, yet it is not among these thirteen. The WJP average also counts constraints on government, open government and fundamental rights, and on the Bank’s voice and accountability estimate for the same year, Singapore’s reading is 113th of 206. The first four readings on that measure belong to Norway, Denmark, Finland and Sweden, the same four countries that open this chart. More of this evidence is on the governance and democracy subject pages.

A Snapshot From October 2024

This chart is not updated. The WJP found that overall scores fell in 57% of countries between 2023 and 2024, a majority for the seventh year running. It has published newer editions since. In this 2024 edition, India was 79th and Pakistan 129th of 142, as the India and Pakistan comparison chart records.