Government Effectiveness - Governance score (0-100) (Government score) in South Korea
South Korea: Government Effectiveness - Governance score (0-100) (Government score) was 83.11 0-100 in 2025. ▲ Rising
Government Effectiveness - Governance score in South Korea, 1996–2025
Source: The Worldwide Governance Indicators: Revised Methodology for Measuring Governance Using Perception Data., World Bank Group (WBG). Measured in 0-100.
Analysis
In 2025, government effectiveness - governance score in South Korea stood at 83.11 0-100.
That represents a change of up 2.6% on the previous year and up 7.5% over ten years.
Over the whole period, government effectiveness - governance score in South Korea peaked at 84.94 0-100 in 2021 and was at its lowest, 58.72 0-100, in 1998.
That places South Korea 19th out of 206 countries with data for 2025, putting it in the top 10%.
The long-run direction has been consistently rising across the 27 years of available data.
Government Effectiveness - Governance score (0-100) (Government score) in South Korea, year by year
| Year | 0-100 | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 1996 | 67.55 0-100 | — |
| 1998 | 58.72 0-100 | -13.1% |
| 2000 | 65 0-100 | +10.7% |
| 2002 | 73.19 0-100 | +12.6% |
| 2003 | 72.27 0-100 | -1.3% |
| 2004 | 70.6 0-100 | -2.3% |
| 2005 | 73.39 0-100 | +4.0% |
| 2006 | 71.7 0-100 | -2.3% |
| 2007 | 75.53 0-100 | +5.3% |
| 2008 | 72.14 0-100 | -4.5% |
| 2009 | 73.63 0-100 | +2.1% |
| 2010 | 78.36 0-100 | +6.4% |
| 2011 | 79.27 0-100 | +1.2% |
| 2012 | 79.76 0-100 | +0.6% |
| 2013 | 77.49 0-100 | -2.9% |
| 2014 | 77 0-100 | -0.6% |
| 2015 | 77.29 0-100 | +0.4% |
| 2016 | 76.54 0-100 | -1.0% |
| 2017 | 76.83 0-100 | +0.4% |
| 2018 | 80.47 0-100 | +4.7% |
| 2019 | 83.96 0-100 | +4.3% |
| 2020 | 83.88 0-100 | -0.1% |
| 2021 | 84.94 0-100 | +1.3% |
| 2022 | 82.42 0-100 | -3.0% |
| 2023 | 82.74 0-100 | +0.4% |
| 2024 | 81.01 0-100 | -2.1% |
| 2025 | 83.11 0-100 | +2.6% |
South Korea compared with similar countries
- South Korea's 83.11 0-100 is above the median for high income countries, which is 73.88 0-100, 1.1× the median. (74 countries reporting)
- South Korea's 83.11 0-100 is above the median for East Asia & Pacific, which is 56.14 0-100, 1.5× the median. (34 countries reporting)
Averages by decade
| Decade | Average | Lowest | Highest | Years |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1990s | 63.14 0-100 | 58.72 0-100 | 67.55 0-100 | 2 |
| 2000s | 71.94 0-100 | 65 0-100 | 75.53 0-100 | 9 |
| 2010s | 78.7 0-100 | 76.54 0-100 | 83.96 0-100 | 10 |
| 2020s | 83.02 0-100 | 81.01 0-100 | 84.94 0-100 | 6 |
Countries ranked near South Korea
More reference data data for South Korea
- Emission Totals - Indirect emissions (N2O) - Manure applied to Soils 0.9638 (2050)
- Emission Totals - Indirect emissions (N2O) - Manure left on Pasture 0.9281 (2050)
- Emission Totals - Indirect emissions (N2O) - IPCC Agriculture 3.55 (2050)
- Emission Totals - Indirect emissions (N2O) - Crop Residues 0.2074 (2050)
- Emission Totals - Indirect emissions (N2O) - Agricultural Soils 3.55 (2050)
- Emission Totals - Emissions (N2O) - Manure applied to Soils 3.23 (2050)
- Emission Totals - Emissions (N2O) - Manure Management 4.37 (2050)
- Emission Totals - Emissions (N2O) - Manure left on Pasture 5.17 (2050)
- Emission Totals - Emissions (N2O) - IPCC Agriculture 19.85 (2050)
- Emission Totals - Emissions (N2O) - Crop Residues 1.13 (2050)
Frequently asked questions
- What is government effectiveness - governance score in South Korea?
- Government effectiveness - governance score in South Korea was 83.11 0-100 in 2025, according to The Worldwide Governance Indicators: Revised Methodology for Measuring Governance Using Perception Data., World Bank Group (WBG).
- What is the highest government effectiveness - governance score recorded in South Korea?
- The highest recorded value was 84.94 0-100 in 2021.
- What is the lowest government effectiveness - governance score recorded in South Korea?
- The lowest recorded value was 58.72 0-100 in 1998.
- How does South Korea rank for government effectiveness - governance score?
- South Korea ranks 19th out of 206 countries with data for 2025.
- Is government effectiveness - governance score rising or falling in South Korea?
- Over the last ten years it is up 7.5%. The long-run trend across the full record is rising.
- Where does this South Korea data come from?
- The figures come from The Worldwide Governance Indicators: Revised Methodology for Measuring Governance Using Perception Data., World Bank Group (WBG), published as part of Government Effectiveness - Governance score (0-100). Statizoid updates them automatically from the source API.
Download this data
CSV · JSON — 27 observations, free to reuse under CC BY 4.0 (World Bank Open Data).
About this data
Government Effectiveness (GE) captures perceptions of the quality of public services, the civil service, policy formulation and implementation, and the credibility of a government’s decisions. Governance score is a linear transformation of the governance estimate using hypothetical worst-case and base-case countries. It is an absolute score ranging from 0-100. Larger values correspond to better governance. The (country-series-time) metadata include the (a) number of sources, and (b) confidence intervals (lower and upper bound). The number of sources indicates the number of underlying data sources on which the governance score (respectively the underlying governance estimate) is based. The confidence intervals include the lower and upper bound of the 90% confidence interval for the governance score. Confidence intervals are a statistical range of values that likely contain the true value (of what is being estimated).