Regulatory quality

Whether rules let private business operate rather than obstruct it.

measured by: World Bank
years covered: 1996–2024
subject: Economic

Higher means more freedom.

How this is measured

One of the six Worldwide Governance Indicators: perceptions of the government’s ability to formulate and implement rules that permit and promote private-sector development, rescaled to 0–100. Aggregated from around thirty underlying surveys and expert assessments, which makes it well grounded, but the World Bank publishes a 90% confidence interval with each score and this site does not show it. How wide that interval is depends on how many sources cover the country, so no fixed number of points separates a real difference from noise.

Ranked for 2024

169 countries and territories have a figure for 2024. This is the most recent year the series covers well; the viewer holds every year from 1996.

#	Country	Region	Regulation
1	Finland	Europe	85.8
2	Denmark	Europe	85.3
3	New Zealand	Asia-Pacific	84.0
4	Luxembourg	Europe	83.9
5	Ireland	Europe	83.2
6	Switzerland	Europe	82.8
7	Australia	Asia-Pacific	82.0
8	Netherlands	Europe	82.0
9	Sweden	Europe	81.2
10	Norway	Europe	81.2
11	United Kingdom	Europe	78.7
12	Greenland	Americas	78.6
13	Germany	Europe	78.5
14	Estonia	Europe	76.9
15	Canada	Americas	76.3
16	United States	Americas	76.2
17	Austria	Europe	76.2
18	Iceland	Europe	75.8
19	Japan	Asia-Pacific	75.8
20	Lithuania	Europe	75.2
21	Belgium	Europe	74.5
22	Czechia	Europe	74.3
23	France	Europe	72.9
24	United Arab Emirates	Middle East & North Africa	72.6
25	Israel	Middle East & North Africa	72.4
26	Latvia	Europe	72.2
27	South Korea	Asia-Pacific	70.9
28	Qatar	Middle East & North Africa	70.1
29	Brunei	Asia-Pacific	68.9
30	Slovenia	Europe	67.5
31	Chile	Americas	67.2
32	Portugal	Europe	66.5
33	Cyprus	Europe	66.5
34	Saudi Arabia	Middle East & North Africa	66.1
35	Oman	Middle East & North Africa	65.7
36	Poland	Europe	65.7
37	Malaysia	Asia-Pacific	65.6
38	Puerto Rico	Americas	65.2
39	Georgia	Eurasia	65.1
40	Uruguay	Americas	65.1
41	Italy	Europe	65.0
42	Spain	Europe	64.7
43	Costa Rica	Americas	64.0
44	Greece	Europe	62.4
45	Slovakia	Europe	61.2
46	Kuwait	Middle East & North Africa	61.2
47	Botswana	Sub-Saharan Africa	61.2
48	Romania	Europe	60.9
49	Hungary	Europe	60.1
50	Bulgaria	Europe	59.4
51	Croatia	Europe	59.4
52	Jordan	Middle East & North Africa	59.2
53	Rwanda	Sub-Saharan Africa	59.1
54	North Macedonia	Europe	59.1
55	Dominican Republic	Americas	58.1
56	Armenia	Eurasia	57.0
57	Albania	Europe	57.0
58	Azerbaijan	Eurasia	57.0
59	Namibia	Sub-Saharan Africa	57.0
60	Montenegro	Europe	56.9
61	Indonesia	Asia-Pacific	56.8
62	Thailand	Asia-Pacific	56.5
63	Jamaica	Americas	56.3
64	Peru	Americas	56.2
65	Philippines	Asia-Pacific	56.1
66	Serbia	Europe	56.1
67	Fiji	Asia-Pacific	55.9
68	Kazakhstan	Eurasia	55.6
69	Colombia	Americas	55.1
70	Morocco	Middle East & North Africa	54.4
71	Moldova	Eurasia	54.1
72	South Africa	Sub-Saharan Africa	53.9
73	Mongolia	Asia-Pacific	53.7
74	China	Asia-Pacific	53.7
75	Panama	Americas	53.7
76	Ghana	Sub-Saharan Africa	53.4
77	Bhutan	Asia-Pacific	53.4
78	India	Asia-Pacific	53.3
79	Bahamas	Americas	53.2
80	Paraguay	Americas	52.6
81	Côte d'Ivoire	Sub-Saharan Africa	52.2
82	El Salvador	Americas	52.1
83	Mexico	Americas	51.8
84	Trinidad and Tobago	Americas	51.6
85	Turkey	Eurasia	51.5
86	Kosovo	Europe	51.3
87	Argentina	Americas	51.2
88	Senegal	Sub-Saharan Africa	51.1
89	Vietnam	Asia-Pacific	50.7
90	Benin	Sub-Saharan Africa	50.5
91	Brazil	Americas	50.2
92	Sri Lanka	Asia-Pacific	50.1
93	Ukraine	Eurasia	50.1
94	Guatemala	Americas	50.0
95	Vanuatu	Asia-Pacific	49.7
96	Kenya	Sub-Saharan Africa	49.6
97	Bosnia and Herzegovina	Europe	49.3
98	Tunisia	Middle East & North Africa	48.7
99	Togo	Sub-Saharan Africa	48.4
100	Zambia	Sub-Saharan Africa	48.2
101	Guyana	Americas	47.8
102	Belize	Americas	47.8
103	Palestine	Middle East & North Africa	47.5
104	Lesotho	Sub-Saharan Africa	47.2
105	Egypt	Middle East & North Africa	47.0
106	Kyrgyzstan	Eurasia	46.7
107	Uganda	Sub-Saharan Africa	46.6
108	Burkina Faso	Sub-Saharan Africa	46.6
109	Uzbekistan	Eurasia	46.6
110	Tanzania	Sub-Saharan Africa	46.4
111	Nepal	Asia-Pacific	46.2
112	Malawi	Sub-Saharan Africa	45.6
113	Papua New Guinea	Asia-Pacific	45.4
114	Honduras	Americas	45.0
115	Cambodia	Asia-Pacific	44.9
116	Nigeria	Sub-Saharan Africa	44.9
117	Laos	Asia-Pacific	44.8
118	Eswatini	Sub-Saharan Africa	44.8
119	Ecuador	Americas	44.7
120	Gambia	Sub-Saharan Africa	44.4
121	Gabon	Sub-Saharan Africa	43.5
122	Cameroon	Sub-Saharan Africa	43.4
123	Timor-Leste	Asia-Pacific	43.3
124	Madagascar	Sub-Saharan Africa	43.1
125	Algeria	Middle East & North Africa	43.0
126	Tajikistan	Eurasia	42.9
127	Mali	Sub-Saharan Africa	42.8
128	Niger	Sub-Saharan Africa	42.8
129	Mozambique	Sub-Saharan Africa	42.8
130	Angola	Sub-Saharan Africa	42.7
131	Mauritania	Sub-Saharan Africa	42.6
132	Pakistan	Asia-Pacific	42.4
133	Burundi	Sub-Saharan Africa	42.0
134	Ethiopia	Sub-Saharan Africa	41.7
135	Liberia	Sub-Saharan Africa	41.6
136	Djibouti	Sub-Saharan Africa	41.4
137	Solomon Islands	Asia-Pacific	40.9
138	Guinea	Sub-Saharan Africa	40.8
139	Suriname	Americas	40.4
140	Bangladesh	Asia-Pacific	39.9
141	Lebanon	Middle East & North Africa	39.7
142	Nicaragua	Americas	39.2
143	Iraq	Middle East & North Africa	38.6
144	Sierra Leone	Sub-Saharan Africa	38.2
145	Russia	Eurasia	38.0
146	Chad	Sub-Saharan Africa	37.7
147	Congo	Sub-Saharan Africa	36.7
148	Zimbabwe	Sub-Saharan Africa	36.3
149	Guinea-Bissau	Sub-Saharan Africa	36.1
150	Belarus	Eurasia	35.4
151	Bolivia	Americas	35.1
152	Central African Republic	Sub-Saharan Africa	34.9
153	Democratic Republic of the Congo	Sub-Saharan Africa	34.6
154	Equatorial Guinea	Sub-Saharan Africa	32.8
155	Myanmar	Asia-Pacific	32.5
156	Cuba	Americas	32.2
157	Haiti	Americas	31.8
158	Iran	Middle East & North Africa	31.0
159	Afghanistan	Asia-Pacific	30.6
160	Yemen	Middle East & North Africa	29.9
161	Sudan	Sub-Saharan Africa	28.6
162	Turkmenistan	Eurasia	28.2
163	Somalia	Sub-Saharan Africa	27.6
164	Libya	Middle East & North Africa	27.4
165	North Korea	Asia-Pacific	25.3
166	Venezuela	Americas	24.8
167	South Sudan	Sub-Saharan Africa	24.4
168	Syria	Middle East & North Africa	23.4
169	Eritrea	Sub-Saharan Africa	22.8

Data by year

Show 26 yearly JSON rankings

Follow a year link to open the complete world ranking, including country names, values, positions, source and licence.

Source and licence

World Bank — Worldwide Governance Indicators

CC BY 4.0. Worldwide Governance Indicators, World Bank How every source was checked

Other economic statistics

Trade openness Tax revenue as a share of GDP Government spending as a share of GDP Foreign investment inflows GDP per capita GDP growth Inflation Unemployment Income inequality Extreme poverty Government debt