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Data for 2025

Meritocratic Appointment in the State Administration, 2025

2025, as V-Dem Institute’s 2026 release gives it · stored as published, never rewritten

V-Dem's measure of meritocratic appointment asks whether people are hired, promoted and fired in a country's civil service on the strength of their skills and merit, or through personal and political connections. It is an expert-coded estimate on an open-ended scale centred near zero, and a higher figure means more appointments on merit.

Meritocratic Appointment in the State Administration, 2025 covers 176 countries. Singapore is highest, at 3.584; Belarus is lowest, at -2.442. The middle country reads 0.310. Against 2024, 64 values changed (32 up, 32 down), the same countries are covered.

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Meritocratic Appointment in the State Administration · Data for 2025

HighestSingapore

3.584

LowestBelarus

-2.442

Shaded by value in five groups of equal size, darkest at the better end.

01Position · derived

The table

Every country and every column of Meritocratic Appointment in the State Administration, 2025, as published. V-Dem Institute ranks nobody on this measure; the position is derived here by ordering the published values. “=” marks a shared position.

Showing 25 of 176 countries · select a heading to sort

Meritocratic Appointment in the State Administration, 2025: every country, as published by V-Dem Institute, University of Gothenburg.
derived
1SingaporeSGPSouth-eastern Asia3.584
2EstoniaESTNorthern Europe2.768
3GermanyDEUWestern Europe2.743
4South KoreaKOREastern Asia2.715
5DenmarkDNKNorthern Europe2.691
6LuxembourgLUXWestern Europe2.374
7United KingdomGBRNorthern Europe2.357
8NorwayNORNorthern Europe2.323
9CzechiaCZEEastern Europe2.246
10LatviaLVANorthern Europe2.171
11AustraliaAUSAustralia and New Zealand2.150
12NetherlandsNLDWestern Europe2.148
13IsraelISRWestern Asia2.140
14IrelandIRLNorthern Europe2.051
15ChileCHLSouth America2.012
16FranceFRAWestern Europe1.985
17SwedenSWENorthern Europe1.959
18IcelandISLNorthern Europe1.891
19UruguayURYSouth America1.824
20JapanJPNEastern Asia1.737
21United Arab EmiratesAREWestern Asia1.718
22United StatesUSANorthern America1.717
23New ZealandNZLAustralia and New Zealand1.677
24MontenegroMNESouthern Europe1.669
25CanadaCANNorthern America1.660

02In 2025

At either end

The 5 countries at each end of the headline.

Highest

  1. 1Singapore3.584
  2. 2Estonia2.768
  3. 3Germany2.743
  4. 4South Korea2.715
  5. 5Denmark2.691

Lowest

  1. 176Belarus-2.442
  2. 175Libya-2.358
  3. 174Eritrea-2.169
  4. 173Chad-1.894
  5. 172Nicaragua-1.859

A higher value is the better result. The middle country reads 0.310. “Shared” marks a value another country also holds.

032024 → 2025

Since 2024

  • +0 / −0countries joined / left
  • 64values changed, of 176 in both
  • 32 · 32rose · fell
  • 112unchanged

Rose most

Fell most

04Caveats

Read before you use

How values are stored

  • One year of the 2026 release

    Every year in this series comes from V-Dem Institute’s 2026 release, recalculated on one method, so a change from one year to the next is not a revision. It can differ from what was first published for 2025.

  • 174 distinct values among 176

    Values are stored exactly as published, to 3 decimals. 2 countries share 0.669. Countries sharing a value share a position too.

  • Nothing missing

    Every one of the 176 countries has every column.

05The files

Download and cite

Licence in full

What this site changed: Reshaped to one row per country, with its ISO code; no value recalculated, rescaled or rounded. In full

Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0 · what it allows, in plain words

Cite this edition

V-Dem Institute, University of Gothenburg (2025). Meritocratic Appointment in the State Administration, 2025 [data set], describing 2025. As held by Nations Inquiry, https://nationsinquiry.com/datasets/meritocratic-appointment/2025

0636 held

Other years