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Dataset · World Bank Group

Rule of Law

27 years, 1996–2025 · 211 countries · 2 measures

Rule of Law is the World Bank’s estimate of how far people have confidence in and abide by the rules of society — contract enforcement, property rights, the police and the courts, and the likelihood of crime and violence. It runs from −2.5 to 2.5 across 200 countries since 1996.

This site holds every year from 1996 to 2025, read from World Bank Group’s own data and stored exactly as published.

Open Rule of Law, 2025Download all 27 · CSVSee it charted by country →
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Rule of Law · the file

Newest
Rule of Law, 2025
Held
27 years · 5,586 rows
Licence
CC BY 4.0

0127 years

Every year

Newest first. Each opens the full table for that year, and each downloads as a CSV.

1996bar height: countries covered, up to 2112025
Every year of Rule of Law held on this site, newest first, with its download files.
YearCountriesChangeReadDownload
Rule of Law, 2025Newest211±0September 26, 2026CSV
Rule of Law, 2024211±0September 26, 2026CSV
Rule of Law, 2023211±0September 26, 2026CSV
Rule of Law, 2022211±0September 26, 2026CSV
Rule of Law, 2021211±0September 26, 2026CSV
Rule of Law, 2020211±0September 26, 2026CSV
Rule of Law, 2019211+1September 26, 2026CSV
Rule of Law, 2018210+3September 26, 2026CSV
Rule of Law, 2017207±0September 26, 2026CSV
Rule of Law, 2016207−2September 26, 2026CSV
Rule of Law, 2015209±0September 26, 2026CSV
Rule of Law, 2014209±0September 26, 2026CSV
Show all 27 years
YearCountriesChangeReadDownload
Rule of Law, 2013209±0September 26, 2026CSV
Rule of Law, 2012209±0September 26, 2026CSV
Rule of Law, 2011209+1September 26, 2026CSV
Rule of Law, 2010208±0September 26, 2026CSV
Rule of Law, 2009208+2September 26, 2026CSV
Rule of Law, 2008206±0September 26, 2026CSV
Rule of Law, 2007206±0September 26, 2026CSV
Rule of Law, 2006206±0September 26, 2026CSV
Rule of Law, 2005206+1September 26, 2026CSV
Rule of Law, 2004205+5September 26, 2026CSV
Rule of Law, 2003200±0September 26, 2026CSV
Rule of Law, 2002200±0September 26, 2026CSV
Rule of Law, 2000200+2September 26, 2026CSV
Rule of Law, 1998198+1September 26, 2026CSV
Rule of Law, 1996197—September 26, 2026CSV

Every year in one file, one row per country per year: rule-of-law-all-editions-nations-inquiry.csv

024 columns

What’s in the file

Every column, what it holds, how it is stored and what its values look like — what a reader needs before opening the file.

Every column in the newest file of Rule of Law: what it holds, how it is stored, and its range.
ColumnWhat it holdsStored asRange, 2025DistinctEmptySpread
CountrycountryNameThe country’s name, as this file spells it.Text—2110
ISO Codecountry_codeIdentifierThe ISO 3166-1 alpha-3 code, added by this site. Every table here joins on it.Text · 3 letters—2110
Rule of Law (−2.5 to 2.5)rule_of_lawHeadlineThe headline figure: Rule of Law estimate (−2.5 to 2.5).Number · up to 18 decimals-2.19904Venezuela2.01153Finlandmiddle -0.102402110
Governance Score, Rule of Law (0–100)governance_scoreMeasureWorld Bank's own rescaling of the estimate onto 0–100, anchored by benchmark countries so that 100 is best; not a percentile.Number · up to 15 decimals22.396Venezuela91.777Finlandmiddle 56.9442110

Profiled from the newest file. Range: the lowest and highest value, with the country holding it when only one does. Spread: countries in ten equal steps from lowest to highest. A higher value is the better result.

03211 countries across every year

Who is covered

How many countries each year holds, continent by continent, who joined and who left, and which places this site covers that the dataset never has.

All regions
Countries in each year of Rule of Law, by continent.
201420152016201720182019202020212022202320242025
Africa545454545454545454545454
Americas424242424242424242424242
Asia515151515151515151515151
Europe444444444444444444444444
Oceania181816161920202020202020
All209209207207210211211211211211211211

The newest 12 of 27 years.

Who joined and who left

  • 2019
    + French Polynesia
  • 2018
    + Cook Islands+ New Caledonia+ Niue
  • 2016
    − Cook Islands− Niue
  • 2011
    + South Sudan
  • 2009
    + Greenland+ Niue
  • 2005
    + Cook Islands
  • 2004
    + Aruba+ Anguilla+ American Samoa+ Guam+ United States Virgin Islands
  • 2000
    + Timor-Leste+ Kosovo

Not in this dataset · 14 places this site covers

World Bank Group gives no figure for these in any year held here. It is the publisher’s choice of scope, and each place’s profile shows what is measured.

British Virgin IslandsChannel IslandsCuraçaoFaroe IslandsGibraltarIsle of ManMontserratNorthern CyprusNorthern Mariana IslandsSaint MartinSint MaartenSomalilandTurks and Caicos IslandsVatican City

04Provenance

Where it comes from

The path from the publisher to this page, and what was checked and changed on the way.

The site’s method

  1. 1 · Publisher

    World Bank Group

    worldbank.org

  2. 2 · Their file

    Rule of Law 2025

    WB_WGI_WIDEF.csv

  3. 3 · Read by this site

    September 26, 2026

    Imported by a script that parses each figure and writes it down unrounded.

  4. 4 · Stored as

    27 files, one per year

    Each downloads as a CSV, or every year together as rule-of-law-all-editions-nations-inquiry.csv

  5. 5 · Used on

    Its statistic page, and every profile it measures

    /statistics/rule-of-lawA key for Democracy & Civil Liberties in the Country Index.

Precision

The headline is stored to 18 decimals, as published.

Rounded by this site

Never. Tables on screen may show fewer decimals; the files never do.

Changed by this site

Reshaped into one row per country: regional and income-group totals are left out, only the columns listed are kept, each row gets its ISO 3166 code, and some country names are brought to one spelling. No value is recalculated, rescaled or rounded.

One of the six Worldwide Governance Indicators, under the Bank’s own licence. This is NOT the World Justice Project’s Rule of Law Index, which measures a similar subject and is not on this site: that publisher grants no commercial reuse.

05Reuse

Licence and credit

What the publisher’s licence lets you do, what it asks of you, and a credit line and citation ready to copy.

Every publisher’s terms

Licence · checked September 7, 2026

CC BY 4.0

  • Share and redistribute it
  • Adapt it and build on it
  • Use it commercially
  • Credit the publisher
  • Say what you changed

Share, adapt and use commercially. Credit the publisher and say if you changed anything.

A credit line

Source: World Bank Group, Rule of Law, via Nations Inquiry.

Cite this dataset

World Bank Group. Rule of Law, 1996–2025 [data set]. As held by Nations Inquiry, https://nationsinquiry.com/datasets/rule-of-law

The publisher’s own citation: World Bank. Worldwide Governance Indicators. Washington, DC: World Bank Group.

Plain-language summary, not legal advice. The licence text is what binds.

06Questions

Rule of Law: questions and answers

What is the Rule of Law?

Rule of Law is the World Bank’s estimate of how far people have confidence in and abide by the rules of society — contract enforcement, property rights, the police and the courts, and the likelihood of crime and violence. It runs from −2.5 to 2.5 across 200 countries since 1996.

Which years of the Rule of Law can I download?

All 27, from 1996 to 2025, each as a CSV file, or every year together in one CSV.

Does World Bank Group rank countries on it?

No. World Bank Group publishes values only. The positions shown on this site are derived by ordering the published values, and are labelled as ours.

Can I use it commercially?

Yes, under CC BY 4.0, with credit to World Bank Group. The licence text is linked on this page.

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