United States: Voice and Accountability - Governance score (0-100)

Key figures

What the numbers say

In 2025, United States' voice and Accountability - Governance score (0-100) fell 4.86 on 2024 (from 74.41 to 69.55).

Across the 22 yearly changes before that (2003 to 2024), the average change was −0.3 and a typical year strayed about 0.9 from that (the standard deviation). This year's change was 5.1 standard deviations below that average, so it was unusually large compared with the rest of the record.

On record, the biggest yearly rise was 1.37 in 2005 and the biggest yearly fall was 4.86 in 2025. The numbers show how large and when, not why; for the cause, look at what happened in that country in those years.

From 2016 to 2025 the straight-line trend is downward, about 0.77 a year. A straight line explains 82% of the movement over 10 observed years.

Worked out from the yearly values above. How the checks work: standard deviation, z-scores and straight-line trends.

A straight-line projection, tested first

Extending that straight line gives about 69.61 for 2028. We show this only because the same method, fitted on earlier years, predicted 2023 to 2025 better than "no change" would have: its average miss was 1.51, against 2.13 for assuming no change. Treat it as a continuation of the recent pattern, not a forecast of events: it cannot see a recession, a policy change or a revision to the data.

See how a linear trend forecast works and the guide on forecasting without fooling yourself.

How it compares

In 2025, United States had the 56th highest value of the 201 economies reporting that year. Higher is not always better: for some indicators the lowest value is the one to aim for. See the full ranking.

Closest to United States in the 2025 ranking

• St. Lucia — 53rd of 201: 71.22
• South Africa — 54th of 201: 70.22
• Seychelles — 55th of 201: 70.16
• Bahamas, The — 57th of 201: 69.32
• Solomon Islands — 58th of 201: 69.14
• St. Vincent and the Grenadines — 59th of 201: 68.98

What this measures

Voice and Accountability (VA) captures perceptions of the extent to which citizens can participate in selecting their government including electoral integrity, and of accountability mechanisms for citizens—reflected in the ability to access information, governmental oversight bodies, and a robust traditional/digital media landscape. 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).

Limitations: The WGI are perception-based measures which draw on 35 distinct underlying data sources, namely expert assessments and household/firm surveys. Data sources based on expert assessments have both strengths and limitations relative to surveys. A key strength is that they are well suited to cross-country comparison, since their methodologies are explicitly designed for this purpose. Expert assessments can also provide more detailed technical judgments on specific public institutions or governance functions that typical household or firm survey respondents may not be well placed to assess.

Regional and income-group figures are computed by the World Bank as a indicators, from the underlying data sources, are aggregated using the unobserved components model (ucm). the ucm is essentially a weighted average, resulting in a governance estimate at the country level. the following provides a detailed description of the aggregation methodology: https://www.worldbank.org/content/dam/sites/govindicators/doc/the%20worldwide%20governance%20indicators%202025%.

All 27 values

Voice and Accountability - Governance score (0-100) in nearby economies

• Bermuda — 76.57 (2017)
• Canada — 85.16 (2025)

More policy & institutions data for United States

• Control of Corruption - Governance estimate (approx. -2.5 to +2.5) — 0.87 (2025)
• Control of Corruption - Governance score (0-100) — 65.5 (2025)
• Government Effectiveness - Governance estimate (approx. -2.5 to +2.5) — 1.19 (2025)
• Government Effectiveness - Governance score (0-100) — 76.72 (2025)
• Political Stability - Governance estimate (approx. -2.5 to +2.5) — -0.3 (2025)
• Political Stability - Governance score (0-100) — 60.31 (2025)
• Rule of Law - Governance estimate (approx. -2.5 to +2.5) — 0.79 (2025)
• Rule of Law - Governance score (0-100) — 71.67 (2025)

Reading data like this

• Where to find free public data, and how to check it before you trust it — 2 min read
• Data analysis examples: 6 worked from one dataset — 3 min read
• Real change or random noise? A plain guide to reading your numbers — 2 min read

Questions people ask

What is United States's voice and Accountability - Governance score (0-100)?

69.55 in 2025, according to the World Bank (World Development Indicators).

How has it changed since 1996?

It is down 10.33% from 77.57 in 1996 (0.38% a year on average, compounded). The highest value was 81.07 in 2002 and the lowest 69.55 in 2025.

Source

World Bank, World Development Indicators, indicator GOV_WGI_VA_SC, licensed CC BY 4.0. Original source: The Worldwide Governance Indicators: Revised Methodology for Measuring Governance Using Perception Data., World Bank Group (WBG), uri: https://www.worldbank.org/en/publication/worldwide-governance-indicators, note: Detailed documentation of the WGI, interactive tools for exploring the data, and full… Figures are fetched from the World Bank API and refreshed monthly; see the series on data.worldbank.org. The full definition and method are in the World Bank's metadata glossary. Comparisons use the same World Bank release.

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