Safety and Rule of Law by country

Countries reporting

Highest

89.45

Botswana

Lowest

4.83

Somalia

Median

54.19

Years covered

2000–2011

Data points

696

What the numbers show

Safety and Rule of Law is currently reported for 52 countries. The highest value is 89.45 in Botswana; the lowest is 4.83 in Somalia.

The median across all reporting countries is 54.19, and the mean is 53.32.

The gap between the highest and lowest reporting country is a factor of about 19.

Over the past decade 21 countries rose and 31 fell. The largest increase was in Liberia (up 133.0%), and the largest decrease in Somalia (down 60.6%).

Safety and Rule of Law: full country ranking

#	Country	Latest	Year	10-year change	Trend
1	Botswana	89.45	2011	up 2.2%	flat
2	Mauritius	88.42	2011	up 1.8%	flat
3	Cape Verde	82.39	2011	down 8.8%	falling
4	Namibia	78	2011	up 2.5%	flat
5	Seychelles	74.59	2011	up 0.1%	flat
6	Ghana	72.04	2011	down 0.2%	flat
7	South Africa	71.49	2011	down 2.9%	falling
8	Lesotho	68.9	2011	up 1.8%	flat
9	Sao Tome and Principe	64.93	2011	down 8.2%	falling
10	Benin	64.81	2011	down 9.3%	falling
11	Zambia	64.43	2011	down 0.1%	flat
12	Eswatini	63.66	2011	up 1.1%	flat
13	Mozambique	62.91	2011	down 6.0%	falling
14	Mali	62.59	2011	down 0.2%	flat
15	Malawi	62.47	2011	down 3.5%	flat
16	Tanzania	62.34	2011	up 3.0%	flat
17	Morocco	60.07	2011	down 4.5%	falling
18	Burkina Faso	58.68	2011	down 14.7%	falling
19	Gabon	57.77	2011	up 3.2%	flat
20	Egypt	57.41	2011	down 4.9%	flat
21	Sierra Leone	57.12	2011	up 108.4%	rising
22	Uganda	56.82	2011	up 1.8%	flat
23	Niger	56.44	2011	up 5.4%	flat
24	Senegal	56.14	2011	down 9.7%	falling
25	Togo	55.84	2011	up 6.5%	rising
26	Comoros	54.24	2011	up 1.2%	flat
27	Tunisia	54.14	2011	down 19.3%	falling
28	Djibouti	53.84	2011	down 8.2%	flat
29	Gambia	50.99	2011	down 17.6%	falling
30	Liberia	50.16	2011	up 133.0%	rising
31	Rwanda	49.4	2011	up 4.6%	rising
32	Kenya	49.01	2011	down 10.6%	falling
33	Mauritania	48.38	2011	down 18.5%	falling
34	Algeria	46.23	2011	down 14.0%	falling
35	Cameroon	46.23	2011	down 3.2%	flat
36	Equatorial Guinea	44.89	2011	up 5.0%	rising
37	Burundi	44.82	2011	up 5.3%	rising
38	Ethiopia	44.57	2011	up 3.3%	flat
39	Congo	44.55	2011	up 31.3%	rising
40	Angola	43.32	2011	up 67.0%	rising
41	Guinea	43.22	2011	down 0.2%	falling
42	Madagascar	42.87	2011	down 35.1%	falling
43	Guinea-Bissau	42.34	2011	down 3.7%	flat
44	Nigeria	40.59	2011	down 3.1%	rising
45	Chad	36.73	2011	down 13.0%	falling
46	Cote d'Ivoire	36.21	2011	down 12.4%	falling
47	Eritrea	32.34	2011	down 21.6%	falling
48	Democratic Republic of Congo	31.61	2011	up 16.9%	rising
49	Central African Republic	29.51	2011	down 1.0%	flat
50	Zimbabwe	29.27	2011	down 19.0%	falling
51	Libya	28.55	2011	down 37.9%	falling
52	Somalia	4.83	2011	down 60.6%	falling

Regions and income groups

Aggregates are excluded from the country ranking above so that a region can never outrank a country.

Sub-Saharan Africa (excluding high income) 53.94
Sub-Saharan Africa 53.75
Sub-Saharan Africa excluding South Africa and Nigeria 53.64
Sub-Saharan Africa excluding South Africa 53.35
Africa 53.32
North Africa 50.04

About this data

Indicator: Safety and Rule of Law
Source: Mo Ibrahim Foundation, electronic files and web site
Licence: CC BY 4.0 (World Bank Open Data)
Coverage: 58 places, 696 data points, 2000–2011
Last refreshed: 07 August 2026

Personal Safety: Within this sub-category the Ibrahim Index measures: (i) Safety of the Person – level of criminality in a country. (ii) Violent Crime – prevalence of violent crime, both organised and common. (iii) Social Unrest – prevalence of violent social unrest. (iv) Human Trafficking – government efforts to combat human trafficking. (v) Domestic Political Persecution – clustered indicator (an average) of the following variables: Physical Integrity Rights Index – government respect for citizens’ rights to freedom from torture, extrajudicial killing, political imprisonment, and disappearance. Political Terror Scale – levels of state-instigated political violence and terror.