Regulatory Quality - Governance score in South Africa

South Africa: Regulatory Quality - Governance score was 53.91 0-100 in 2024. ▼ Falling

Latest (2024)
53.91 0-100
Change on year
up 0.1%
World rank
97th
of 205 countries
All-time high
68.14 0-100
in 2003
All-time low
53.88 0-100
in 2022
Years of data
26
1996–2024

Regulatory Quality - Governance score in South Africa, 1996–2024

02040601996201020241996: 57.7 0-1001998: 61.4 0-1002000: 62.5 0-1002002: 67.7 0-1002003: 68.1 0-1002004: 64.9 0-1002005: 64.9 0-1002006: 66 0-1002007: 64.9 0-1002008: 65 0-1002009: 65.5 0-1002010: 66 0-1002011: 65.2 0-1002012: 65 0-1002013: 64.7 0-1002014: 61.2 0-1002015: 59.5 0-1002016: 59 0-1002017: 58.5 0-1002018: 55.9 0-1002019: 56.7 0-1002020: 56.3 0-1002021: 55.1 0-1002022: 53.9 0-1002023: 53.9 0-1002024: 53.9 0-100

Source: The Worldwide Governance Indicators: Revised Methodology for Measuring Governance Using Perception Data., World Bank Group (WBG). Measured in 0-100.

Analysis

The most recent figure for regulatory quality - governance score in South Africa is 53.91 0-100, measured in 2024.

The figure is up 0.1% on the previous year and down 11.9% over ten years.

Over the whole period, regulatory quality - governance score in South Africa peaked at 68.14 0-100 in 2003 and was at its lowest, 53.88 0-100, in 2022.

South Africa ranks 97th of 205 countries on this measure, in the middle of the range.

The long-run direction has been consistently falling across the 26 years of available data.

Regulatory Quality - Governance score in South Africa, year by year

Annual values for Regulatory Quality - Governance score (0-100) in South Africa, 1996 to 2024.
Year 0-100 Change
1996 57.66 0-100 —
1998 61.4 0-100 +6.5%
2000 62.47 0-100 +1.7%
2002 67.68 0-100 +8.3%
2003 68.14 0-100 +0.7%
2004 64.91 0-100 -4.7%
2005 64.87 0-100 -0.1%
2006 65.97 0-100 +1.7%
2007 64.94 0-100 -1.6%
2008 65.05 0-100 +0.2%
2009 65.55 0-100 +0.8%
2010 65.96 0-100 +0.6%
2011 65.19 0-100 -1.2%
2012 64.99 0-100 -0.3%
2013 64.72 0-100 -0.4%
2014 61.2 0-100 -5.4%
2015 59.51 0-100 -2.8%
2016 58.98 0-100 -0.9%
2017 58.49 0-100 -0.8%
2018 55.94 0-100 -4.3%
2019 56.74 0-100 +1.4%
2020 56.28 0-100 -0.8%
2021 55.14 0-100 -2.0%
2022 53.88 0-100 -2.3%
2023 53.88 0-100 +0.0%
2024 53.91 0-100 +0.1%

South Africa compared with similar countries

  • South Africa's 53.91 0-100 is above the median for upper middle income countries, which is 53.26 0-100, 1.0× the median. (59 countries reporting)
  • South Africa's 53.91 0-100 is above the median for Sub-Saharan Africa, which is 43.21 0-100, 1.2× the median. (48 countries reporting)

Averages by decade

DecadeAverage LowestHighest Years
1990s 59.53 0-100 57.66 0-100 61.4 0-100 2
2000s 65.51 0-100 62.47 0-100 68.14 0-100 9
2010s 61.17 0-100 55.94 0-100 65.96 0-100 10
2020s 54.62 0-100 53.88 0-100 56.28 0-100 5

Countries ranked near South Africa

  1. 94 Colombia 55.07 0-100 compare
  2. 95 Morocco 54.44 0-100 compare
  3. 96 Moldova 54.13 0-100 compare
  4. 98 Mongolia 53.75 0-100 compare
  5. 99 China 53.74 0-100 compare
  6. 100 Panama 53.7 0-100 compare

See the full ranking of 205 places →

More reference data data for South Africa

All data for South Africa →

Frequently asked questions

What is regulatory quality - governance score in South Africa?
Regulatory quality - governance score in South Africa was 53.91 0-100 in 2024, according to The Worldwide Governance Indicators: Revised Methodology for Measuring Governance Using Perception Data., World Bank Group (WBG).
What is the highest regulatory quality - governance score recorded in South Africa?
The highest recorded value was 68.14 0-100 in 2003.
What is the lowest regulatory quality - governance score recorded in South Africa?
The lowest recorded value was 53.88 0-100 in 2022.
How does South Africa rank for regulatory quality - governance score?
South Africa ranks 97th out of 205 countries with data for 2024.
Is regulatory quality - governance score rising or falling in South Africa?
Over the last ten years it is down 11.9%. The long-run trend across the full record is falling.
Where does this South Africa 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 Regulatory Quality - Governance score (0-100). Statizoid updates them automatically from the source API.

Download this data

CSV · JSON — 26 observations, free to reuse under CC BY 4.0 (World Bank Open Data).

Share, cite or embed this page

Cite this page

Regulatory Quality - Governance score in South Africa. Statizoid, drawing on The Worldwide Governance Indicators: Revised Methodology for Measuring Governance Using Perception Data., World Bank Group (WBG). Retrieved 29 September 2026, from https://reference.statizoid.com/stat/regulatory-quality-governance-score-0-100/south-africa/

Embed or link this data

Paste this into a page to link back to these figures. The data itself is free to reuse under CC BY 4.0 (World Bank Open Data); please keep the attribution.

<a href="https://reference.statizoid.com/stat/regulatory-quality-governance-score-0-100/south-africa/">Regulatory Quality - Governance score in South Africa</a> — Statizoid

About this data

Indicator
Regulatory Quality - Governance score (0-100)
Unit
0-100
Source
The Worldwide Governance Indicators: Revised Methodology for Measuring Governance Using Perception Data., World Bank Group (WBG)
Licence
CC BY 4.0 (World Bank Open Data)
Coverage
205 places, 5,160 data points, 1996–2024
Last refreshed

Regulatory Quality (RQ) captures perceptions of the government’s ability to design and implement policies and regulations that promote private sector development. 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).