Rule of Law - Governance score in United States

United States: Rule of Law - Governance score was 73.52 0-100 in 2024. ▼ Falling

Latest (2024)
73.52 0-100
Change on year
up 0.0%
World rank
40th
of 206 countries
All-time high
85.98 0-100
in 2000
All-time low
73.5 0-100
in 2023
Years of data
26
1996–2024

Rule of Law - Governance score in United States, 1996–2024

0204060801996201020241996: 83.4 0-1001998: 84.4 0-1002000: 86 0-1002002: 85.4 0-1002003: 84.4 0-1002004: 82.8 0-1002005: 84.1 0-1002006: 84.2 0-1002007: 83.8 0-1002008: 84.2 0-1002009: 82.5 0-1002010: 82.9 0-1002011: 80.4 0-1002012: 80.8 0-1002013: 79.4 0-1002014: 80 0-1002015: 80.7 0-1002016: 81 0-1002017: 79.7 0-1002018: 77.1 0-1002019: 76.3 0-1002020: 74.3 0-1002021: 74.7 0-1002022: 75.1 0-1002023: 73.5 0-1002024: 73.5 0-100

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

Analysis

United States recorded 73.52 0-100 for rule of law - governance score in 2024.

The figure is down 8.2% over ten years.

Over the whole period, rule of law - governance score in United States peaked at 85.98 0-100 in 2000 and was at its lowest, 73.5 0-100, in 2023.

United States ranks 40th of 206 countries on this measure, in the top quarter.

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

Rule of Law - Governance score in United States, year by year

Annual values for Rule of Law - Governance score (0-100) in United States, 1996 to 2024.
Year 0-100 Change
1996 83.39 0-100
1998 84.45 0-100 +1.3%
2000 85.98 0-100 +1.8%
2002 85.41 0-100 -0.7%
2003 84.4 0-100 -1.2%
2004 82.84 0-100 -1.9%
2005 84.11 0-100 +1.5%
2006 84.18 0-100 +0.1%
2007 83.82 0-100 -0.4%
2008 84.18 0-100 +0.4%
2009 82.51 0-100 -2.0%
2010 82.94 0-100 +0.5%
2011 80.43 0-100 -3.0%
2012 80.79 0-100 +0.4%
2013 79.37 0-100 -1.8%
2014 80.05 0-100 +0.9%
2015 80.66 0-100 +0.8%
2016 81.01 0-100 +0.4%
2017 79.68 0-100 -1.6%
2018 77.14 0-100 -3.2%
2019 76.3 0-100 -1.1%
2020 74.25 0-100 -2.7%
2021 74.66 0-100 +0.5%
2022 75.07 0-100 +0.5%
2023 73.5 0-100 -2.1%
2024 73.52 0-100 +0.0%

Averages by decade

DecadeAverage LowestHighest Years
1990s 83.92 0-100 83.39 0-100 84.45 0-100 2
2000s 84.16 0-100 82.51 0-100 85.98 0-100 9
2010s 79.84 0-100 76.3 0-100 82.94 0-100 10
2020s 74.2 0-100 73.5 0-100 75.07 0-100 5

Countries ranked near United States

  1. 37 Slovenia 73.81 0-100 compare
  2. 38 France 73.81 0-100 compare
  3. 39 Micronesia, Federated States of 73.78 0-100 compare
  4. 41 Uruguay 73.32 0-100 compare
  5. 42 Spain 73 0-100 compare
  6. 43 Hong Kong, China 72.82 0-100 compare

See the full ranking of 206 places →

More reference data data for United States

All data for United States →

Frequently asked questions

What is rule of law - governance score in United States?
Rule of law - governance score in United States was 73.52 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 rule of law - governance score recorded in United States?
The highest recorded value was 85.98 0-100 in 2000.
What is the lowest rule of law - governance score recorded in United States?
The lowest recorded value was 73.5 0-100 in 2023.
How does United States rank for rule of law - governance score?
United States ranks 40th out of 206 countries with data for 2024.
Is rule of law - governance score rising or falling in United States?
Over the last ten years it is down 8.2%. The long-run trend across the full record is falling.
Where does this United States 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 Rule of Law - 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

Rule of Law - Governance score in United States. Statizoid, drawing on The Worldwide Governance Indicators: Revised Methodology for Measuring Governance Using Perception Data., World Bank Group (WBG). Retrieved 23 August 2026, from https://reference.statizoid.com/stat/rule-of-law-governance-score-0-100/united-states/

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/rule-of-law-governance-score-0-100/united-states/">Rule of Law - Governance score in United States</a> — Statizoid

About this data

Indicator
Rule of Law - 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
206 places, 5,270 data points, 1996–2024
Last refreshed

Rule of Law (RL) captures perceptions of the extent to which agents respect and follow the rules of society, including contract enforcement, property rights, the police, courts, and the likelihood of crime and violence. 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).