North Korea—Rule of Law Score (0-100)
North Korea's rule of law score (0-100) was 34.1 in 2025, ranking #192 out of 207 countries. This represents a +1.2% change from 2024. Over the past 25 years, the highest recorded value was 44 (2000) and the lowest was 30 (2017). Data sourced from the World Bank Worldwide Governance Indicators.
Historical Data
| Year | Value | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 34.1 | +1.2% |
| 2024 | 33.7 | -0.6% |
| 2023 | 33.9 | -1.9% |
| 2022 | 34.6 | +10.4% |
| 2021 | 31.3 | -0.0% |
| 2020 | 31.3 | +1.2% |
| 2019 | 30.9 | +0.0% |
| 2018 | 30.9 | +3.1% |
| 2017 | 30 | -1.5% |
| 2016 | 30.5 | +0.0% |
| 2015 | 30.5 | +0.1% |
| 2014 | 30.4 | -10.3% |
| 2013 | 33.9 | -2.0% |
| 2012 | 34.6 | -8.6% |
| 2011 | 37.9 | -0.0% |
| 2010 | 37.9 | +8.3% |
| 2009 | 35 | -0.3% |
| 2008 | 35.1 | -1.2% |
| 2007 | 35.5 | +0.0% |
| 2006 | 35.5 | -4.0% |
| 2005 | 37 | +0.8% |
| 2004 | 36.7 | -3.5% |
| 2003 | 38 | +3.5% |
| 2002 | 36.7 | -16.4% |
| 2000 | 44 |
Top Countries — Rule of Law Score (0-100)
| # | Country | Value | Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Finland | 91.8 | 2025 |
| 2 | Denmark | 91.7 | 2025 |
| 3 | Norway | 90.6 | 2025 |
| 4 | Sweden | 87.3 | 2025 |
| 5 | Switzerland | 87.3 | 2025 |
| 6 | Liechtenstein | 86.8 | 2025 |
| 7 | Luxembourg | 86.8 | 2025 |
| 8 | Netherlands | 86.2 | 2025 |
| 9 | New Zealand | 85.9 | 2025 |
| 10 | Austria | 85.8 | 2025 |
About This Indicator
Definition
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.
Methodology
Original contributors: Detailed documentation of the WGI, interactive tools for exploring the data, and full access to the underlying source data available at www.govindicators.org. Worldwide Governance Indicators, 2025 Revision, World Bank (www.govindicators.org), Accessed on 12/15/2025. And: World Bank (2025). “The Worldwide Governance Indicators: Revised Methodology for Measuring Governance Using Perception Data.” Washington, DC: World Bank Group. The 2025 revision builds upon the original WGI methodology which was introduced in 1999 and summarized by the following paper: Kaufmann, Daniel & Aart C. Kraay. (2024). “The Worldwide Governance Indicators: Methodology and 2024 Update.” Policy Research Working Paper. Washington, DC: World Bank Group.
Unit
governance score (0–100)