Definition:
The Rule of Law Index is a measure of "the extent to which agents have confidence in and abide by the rules of society." The degree to which a society's atmosphere is conducive to regular, orderly social and economic activity and the protection of private property is an important measure of government effectiveness.

Values are indexed to have a mean of zero and a standard deviation of one index unit. Positive scores indicate better governance and 99% of the values fall between 2.5 and -2.5.

Years Covered and Frequency of Update:
The data shown here are for 1996, 1998, 2000, and annually for 2002-2008 and are available online as part of the World Bank's Governance Matters VIII report, available at http://info.worldbank.org/governance/wgi/index.asp. The World Bank has been updating this dataset annually.

Methodology:
The six World Bank governance indicators presented in Governance Matters VIII are composite indices created from several hundred variables derived from 32 different data providers. It should be noted that all variables are not available for every country in each year. This will result in significant margins-of-error in countries for which a substantial amount of data is not available. The variables used in calculating the final indices are comprised of expert opinions, such as Freedom House's Level of Freedom indicator, surveys, such as Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index, and "hard" data, like the percent of government revenues generated by trade-related taxes.

The Rule of Law index is comprised of indicators that measure perceptions of the incidence of crime, judicial quality and honesty, and the enforceability of contracts.

For an in-depth discussion of the methodology used in calculating the indexes, please see http://info.worldbank.org/governance/wgi/index.asp.

Data Reliability:
The World Bank is a world leader in information collection, and relies on highly reputable sources for the data comprising this index. The methodologies used here are subject to rigorous internal and external reviews. These data are reproducible and the index components are clear. Ratings are assigned by a centralized team of researchers. Thus, the data are considered to be generally reliable.

Nonetheless, there is an unavoidable amount of subjectivity in any index calculation. Users should bear in mind that this index is, in part, measuring ideas and behaviors rather than discrete physical quantities. While these data can illustrate rough comparisons and trends over time, rigid score comparisons and rankings are discouraged due to the significant margin of error present for some countries. For further information, users should see the Governance Matters VIII paper, available online at http://info.worldbank.org/governance/wgi/index.asp. The paper includes a detailed discussion of the study's methodology, as well as the calculated margin of error for each country's score.

Governance Matters VIII: Aggregate and Individual Governance Indicators, 1996-2008. D. Kaufmann, A. Kraay, and M. Mastruzzi (2009). World Bank Policy Research Working Paper 4978. Available online at: http://info.worldbank.org/governance/wgi/index.asp.