Countries With the Lowest Government Effectiveness

Every country with a figure for government effectiveness, ranked from lowest to highest. The top three are South Sudan (-2.17), Haiti (-2.02) and Somalia, Fed. Rep. (-1.95). The middle country of the 206 has 0.01.

What this measures

Government Effectiveness (estimate), in index (approx. -2.5 to 2.5). Source: World Bank. For this measure, higher is better.

This measure mostly follows how rich a country is, so this ranking is close to a ranking by national income. Each country’s page also ranks it against countries with similar incomes, which is often the fairer comparison.

The full ranking

Each country’s latest figure, from 2024–2024. The year beside each value says when it was measured.

More on government effectiveness

• Countries With the Highest Government Effectiveness
• Government effectiveness by country: trend over time and what it goes with

Related rankings

• Countries With the Lowest Corruption Perceptions Index
• Countries With the Lowest Political Rights (FH)
• Countries With the Lowest Civil Liberties (FH)
• Countries With the Lowest Trust in Government
• Countries With the Lowest Pre-trial Detainee Shares
• Countries With the Lowest Refugees Originating
• Countries With the Lowest Electoral Democracy
• Countries With the Lowest Liberal Democracy

A ranking describes countries, not the people in them, and a high or low place does not by itself say why. All country rankings.