Homepage > Data Quality Ratings

Data Quality Ratings

Organisations of many kinds use GDP data. Governments, Non-Governmental Organisations, Civil Societies, Businesses and a thousand others trust "official" economic data and use it as if it were holy writ. Highly regarded companies like global consultants McKinsey produce lists of the fastest growing countries to admire and perhaps invest in. Government aid is distributed, product plans put together, and factories built using such data as authoritative ammunition.

Yet few bother to inquire whether the GDP data used is of reasonable quality. In reality a great deal of GDP data is of such poor quality it should never be used to site an ice cream stall let alone be part of an elaborate business plan.

Measuring Data Quality

World Economics has spent many years studying the problems associated with GDP and population data. We have found many fault lines. Data is often out of date. Giant areas of economic activity not included. Half newly born children not registered. Statistics offices underfunded and unable to run good quality surveys. Data spoiled by politicians trying to gain an edge. Data simply not published to avoid political fallout. And so on.

GDP and Population Data Quality: Good data + Bad data = unreliable data

World Economics has developed the Global GDP Data Quality Ratings to review the usefulness of official GDP data of individual countries. The Ratings currently cover five factors to determine data quality. Each factor is evaluated to provide country scores which are then normalised using the standard deviation of the data for each factor and combined into the DQR score using an average aggregate to reflect the importance of each of the individual factors. These five factors used to judge data quality are: Base Year used to calculate the GDP data (chained or years out of date), Standard of National Accounts (SNA) applied, estimated size of the Informal Economy, a proxy for Resources Devoted to Measuring Economic Activity and a proxy measure for likely Government Interference in Economic Data production. See expanded ranking table with source data.

The accuracy of population data varies widely across countries. In order to take account of the problems and to assess the relative accuracy of population estimates World Economics has produced a Population Data Quality Rating (PDQR). The ratings cover three factors: Census year, Statistical capacity and Registration of live births. See expanded ranking table with source data.

GDP Data Quality Ratings

			Original Source Data
Rank	Country	World Economics Data Quality Index	World Economics Data Grade (A-E)

1	Denmark	97.9	A
2	Finland	96.7	A
3	Norway	96.4	A
4	Netherlands	96.2	A
5	Canada	95.0	A
6	Switzerland	94.9	A
7	Germany	94.8	A
8	Ireland	94.5	A
9	New Zealand	94.5	A
10	Austria	93.7	A
11	Australia	93.6	A
12	Luxembourg	93.6	A
13	Iceland	93.2	A
14	United States	93.0	A
15	Singapore	92.9	A
16	Sweden	92.7	A
17	United Kingdom	92.6	A
18	Japan	91.9	A
19	Estonia	91.5	A
20	Portugal	90.8	A
21	Belgium	90.7	A
22	France	90.1	A
23	Slovenia	89.9	A
24	Lithuania	89.2	A
25	Latvia	89.1	A
26	Poland	89.1	A
27	Czechia	88.7	A
28	Slovak Republic	88.3	A
29	Israel	87.7	A
30	Korea, Rep.	87.6	A
31	Spain	87.4	A
32	Taiwan	87.4	A
33	Italy	87.1	A
34	Chile	86.0	B
35	Malta	85.1	B
36	Romania	85.0	B
37	Cyprus	84.4	B
38	Costa Rica	84.3	B
39	Mauritius	83.6	B
40	Hungary	83.4	B
41	Croatia	83.0	B
42	Greece	81.9	B
43	Bulgaria	81.6	B
44	United Arab Emirates	81.4	B
45	Saudi Arabia	80.5	B
46	Brazil	79.8	B
47	Colombia	79.6	B
48	North Macedonia	79.1	B
49	Moldova	79.0	B
50	Hong Kong	78.6	B
51	Mongolia	78.3	B
52	Oman	76.8	B
53	Malaysia	76.7	B
54	Morocco	76.7	B
55	Dominican Republic	76.4	B
56	Armenia	76.3	B
57	India	76.1	B
58	Qatar	75.2	B
59	Jordan	75.0	B
60	Uruguay	74.8	C
61	Türkiye	74.5	C
62	Georgia	74.1	C
63	Botswana	74.0	C
64	Tunisia	73.3	C
65	Thailand	73.2	C
66	Uzbekistan	73.0	C
67	Argentina	72.9	C
68	Ukraine	72.5	C
69	Cabo Verde	71.5	C
70	Philippines	71.5	C
71	Belarus	71.3	C
72	Mexico	71.1	C
73	Russia	71.1	C
74	Namibia	70.5	C
75	Sri Lanka	70.1	C
76	Bahamas, The	69.6	C
77	Comoros	69.6	C
78	Brunei	69.3	C
79	Kyrgyzstan	69.3	C
80	Lebanon	69.3	C
81	Serbia	69.1	C
82	Bahrain	68.7	C
83	Ghana	68.7	C
84	Rwanda	68.4	C
85	Trinidad and Tobago	68.4	C
86	Algeria	68.3	C
87	Ecuador	68.3	C
88	Guatemala	68.3	C
89	Indonesia	68.3	C
90	Senegal	68.3	C
91	South Africa	68.1	C
92	China	68.0	C
93	Albania	67.4	C
94	Benin	67.1	C
95	Malawi	66.9	C
96	Kuwait	66.6	C
97	Azerbaijan	66.2	C
98	Cote d'Ivoire	65.9	C
99	Panama	65.8	C
100	Bangladesh	65.6	C
101	Kenya	65.4	C
102	Suriname	65.4	C
103	Lesotho	64.4	C
104	Kazakhstan	64.2	C
105	Paraguay	64.2	C
106	Togo	64.2	C
107	Uganda	64.0	C
108	Bosnia and Herzegovina	62.6	C
109	Tanzania	62.5	C
110	El Salvador	62.3	C
111	Cameroon	62.1	C
112	Gambia	62.0	C
113	Mauritania	61.7	D
114	Vietnam	61.7	D
115	Pakistan	60.9	D
116	Sierra Leone	60.5	D
117	Jamaica	60.3	D
118	Nicaragua	60.3	D
119	Nigeria	59.7	D
120	Mozambique	59.6	D
121	Peru	58.5	D
122	Niger	58.3	D
123	Zambia	58.2	D
124	Burkina Faso	57.7	D
125	Zimbabwe	57.4	D
126	Egypt	57.0	D
127	Turkmenistan	55.9	D
128	Guyana	55.4	D
129	Eswatini	55.2	D
130	Tajikistan	54.8	D
131	Bolivia	52.5	E
132	Liberia	51.9	E
133	Nepal	51.9	E
134	Angola	51.1	E
135	Haiti	51.0	E
136	Mali	50.5	E
137	Honduras	49.9	E
138	Papua New Guinea	49.4	E
139	Bhutan	49.3	E
140	Laos	49.1	E
141	Ethiopia	48.4	E
142	Gabon	47.6	E
143	Guinea-Bissau	46.4	E
144	Burundi	46.0	E
145	Chad	44.9	E
146	Guinea	44.4	E
147	Myanmar	44.0	E
148	Libya	42.4	E
149	Madagascar	41.7	E
150	Yemen, Rep.	38.6	E
151	Congo, Rep.	36.9	E
152	Congo, Dem. Rep	34.5	E
153	Cambodia	34.4	E
154	Central African Republic	33.6	E
155	Afghanistan	31.7	E
156	Sudan	25.2	E

More: For more data on individual countries click the country name.

Population Data Quality Ratings

			Original Source Data
Rank	Country	World Economics Data Quality Index	World Economics Data Grade (A-E)

1	Denmark	98.2	A
2	Finland	97.1	A
3	Singapore	96.8	A
4	Norway	95.1	A
5	Switzerland	94.7	A
6	Germany	93.2	A
7	Canada	92.8	A
8	Hong Kong	92.7	B
9	New Zealand	92.3	A
10	Australia	91.2	A
11	Estonia	91.1	A
12	Netherlands	90.9	A
13	Iceland	90.8	A
14	Austria	88.9	A
15	Japan	88.9	A
16	Luxembourg	88.9	A
17	Taiwan	88.2	B
18	Belgium	87.6	A
19	United States	87.6	A
20	United Kingdom	87.2	A
21	Lithuania	86.4	A
22	Uruguay	86.4	B
23	Sweden	86.0	A
24	France	85.7	B
25	Ireland	85.5	A
26	Portugal	85.2	A
27	Saudi Arabia	85.2	B
28	Slovenia	85.1	A
29	Korea, Rep.	85.0	A
30	United Arab Emirates	84.9	A
31	Chile	84.8	B
32	Poland	84.2	A
33	Costa Rica	83.9	B
34	Czechia	83.8	A
35	Latvia	83.7	A
36	Malta	82.9	B
37	Israel	82.8	B
38	Romania	82.1	B
39	Italy	81.9	B
40	Cabo Verde	81.7	B
41	Malaysia	81.7	B
42	Greece	81.3	B
43	Slovak Republic	80.6	B
44	Botswana	80.5	B
45	Spain	80.4	B
46	Georgia	79.5	B
47	Hungary	79.5	B
48	Cyprus	78.4	B
49	Bulgaria	78.3	B
50	North Macedonia	78.2	B
51	Qatar	78.2	B
52	Armenia	78.0	B
53	Brazil	77.9	B
54	Kazakhstan	77.4	B
55	Colombia	76.9	B
56	Oman	76.9	B
57	Albania	76.7	B
58	Mexico	76.2	B
59	Croatia	76.1	B
60	Moldova	76.1	B
61	Kuwait	75.5	B
62	Argentina	75.0	B
63	Mongolia	75.0	B
64	Brunei	74.8	B
65	Sri Lanka	74.7	B
66	Mauritius	73.9	B
67	Panama	73.8	B
68	Belarus	73.6	B
69	Jamaica	73.6	B
70	Bahrain	73.3	B
71	Serbia	73.1	B
72	India	73.0	C
73	Türkiye	73.0	B
74	Thailand	71.8	B
75	Egypt	71.6	C
76	Kyrgyzstan	71.4	C
77	Tunisia	70.7	B
78	Morocco	70.3	B
79	Ukraine	70.1	B
80	Guatemala	69.4	C
81	Russia	67.8	C
82	China	67.3	C
83	Azerbaijan	67.1	C
84	Bosnia and Herzegovina	65.9	C
85	Algeria	64.7	C
86	Jordan	64.6	C
87	El Salvador	64.3	C
88	Trinidad and Tobago	64.2	C
89	Uzbekistan	61.9	C
90	Nigeria	60.8	C
91	Philippines	60.3	C
92	South Africa	60.2	B
93	Ecuador	57.7	C
94	Bahamas, The	57.5	C
95	Suriname	56.8	C
96	Bangladesh	56.7	D
97	Peru	56.1	C
98	Bolivia	53.1	C
99	Bhutan	52.6	C
100	Paraguay	52.5	C
101	Tajikistan	52.5	D
102	Rwanda	52.4	C
103	Guyana	49.3	C
104	Senegal	49.1	D
105	Ghana	47.2	D
106	Tanzania	45.5	D
107	Indonesia	44.6	D
108	Burkina Faso	43.5	D
109	Vietnam	43.5	D
110	Benin	43.3	D
111	Cote d'Ivoire	43.3	D
112	Lesotho	42.9	E
113	Zambia	41.4	D
114	Nepal	41.3	E
115	Malawi	41.2	D
116	Pakistan	41.1	E
117	Gambia	40.4	E
118	Sierra Leone	40.2	D
119	Nicaragua	39.8	D
120	Namibia	39.5	D
121	Angola	39.1	E
122	Kenya	39.0	D
123	Laos	38.9	E
124	Dominican Republic	38.8	D
125	Uganda	38.8	E
126	Mali	37.8	E
127	Togo	36.4	E
128	Cambodia	36.1	E
129	Niger	35.9	E
130	Sudan	35.9	E
131	Zimbabwe	35.7	E
132	Mozambique	35.6	E
133	Ethiopia	34.8	E
134	Myanmar	34.8	E
135	Madagascar	34.7	E
136	Liberia	34.6	E
137	Guinea	33.1	E
138	Gabon	32.3	E
139	Eswatini	32.0	E
140	Cameroon	31.8	E
141	Mauritania	31.4	E
142	Honduras	30.0	E
143	Chad	27.3	E
144	Congo, Rep.	26.8	E
145	Papua New Guinea	26.3	E
146	Turkmenistan	25.9	E
147	Guinea-Bissau	25.6	E
148	Comoros	24.9	E
149	Haiti	24.8	E
150	Burundi	23.6	E
151	Central African Republic	21.9	E
152	Yemen, Rep.	21.6	E
153	Libya	19.4	E
154	Congo, Dem. Rep	19.0	E
155	Afghanistan	15.0	E
156	Lebanon	14.4	E

GDP Per Capita Data Quality Ratings

As differences exist in the quality of both GDP and population data between countries. When GDP and population data of poor quality are combined to produce GDP per capita data the accuracy of the resulting ratio is further diminished. The ratings table below attemps to show which countries data can be trusted for GDP per Capita data. A country's GDP per capita data can only be as good as the weakest of it's components.

Rank

Country

World Economics Data
Grade
(A-E)

World Economics GDP
Data Quality Rating
Index

World Economics Population
Data Quality Rating
Index

1	Denmark	A	97.9	98.2
2	Finland	A	96.7	97.1
3	Norway	A	96.4	95.1
4	Switzerland	A	94.9	94.7
5	Germany	A	94.8	93.2
6	Singapore	A	92.9	96.8
7	Canada	A	95.0	92.8
8	New Zealand	A	94.5	92.3
9	Australia	A	93.6	91.2
10	Estonia	A	91.5	91.1
11	Netherlands	A	96.2	90.9
12	Iceland	A	93.2	90.8
13	Austria	A	93.7	88.9
14	Japan	A	91.9	88.9
15	Luxembourg	A	93.6	88.9
16	Belgium	A	90.7	87.6
17	United States	A	93.0	87.6
18	United Kingdom	A	92.6	87.2
19	Lithuania	A	89.2	86.4
20	Sweden	A	92.7	86.0
21	Ireland	A	94.5	85.5
22	Portugal	A	90.8	85.2
23	Slovenia	A	89.9	85.1
24	Korea, Rep.	A	87.6	85.0
25	Poland	A	89.1	84.2
26	Czechia	A	88.7	83.8
27	Latvia	A	89.1	83.7
28	Taiwan	B	87.4	88.2
29	France	B	90.1	85.7
30	Chile	B	86.0	84.8
31	Costa Rica	B	84.3	83.9
32	Malta	B	85.1	82.9
33	Israel	B	87.7	82.8
34	Romania	B	85.0	82.1
35	Italy	B	87.1	81.9
36	United Arab Emirates	B	81.4	84.9
37	Greece	B	81.9	81.3
38	Slovak Republic	B	88.3	80.6
39	Saudi Arabia	B	80.5	85.2
40	Spain	B	87.4	80.4
41	Hungary	B	83.4	79.5
42	Hong Kong	B	78.6	92.7
43	Cyprus	B	84.4	78.4
44	Bulgaria	B	81.6	78.3
45	North Macedonia	B	79.1	78.2
46	Brazil	B	79.8	77.9
47	Colombia	B	79.6	76.9
48	Oman	B	76.8	76.9
49	Malaysia	B	76.7	81.7
50	Armenia	B	76.3	78.0
51	Croatia	B	83.0	76.1
52	Moldova	B	79.0	76.1
53	Qatar	B	75.2	78.2
54	Mongolia	B	78.3	75.0
55	Mauritius	B	83.6	73.9
56	Morocco	B	76.7	70.3
57	Uruguay	C	74.8	86.4
58	Georgia	C	74.1	79.5
59	Botswana	C	74.0	80.5
60	India	C	76.1	73.0
61	Türkiye	C	74.5	73.0
62	Argentina	C	72.9	75.0
63	Thailand	C	73.2	71.8
64	Cabo Verde	C	71.5	81.7
65	Belarus	C	71.3	73.6
66	Mexico	C	71.1	76.2
67	Tunisia	C	73.3	70.7
68	Sri Lanka	C	70.1	74.7
69	Ukraine	C	72.5	70.1
70	Brunei	C	69.3	74.8
71	Kyrgyzstan	C	69.3	71.4
72	Serbia	C	69.1	73.1
73	Bahrain	C	68.7	73.3
74	Guatemala	C	68.3	69.4
75	Russia	C	71.1	67.8
76	Albania	C	67.4	76.7
77	China	C	68.0	67.3
78	Kuwait	C	66.6	75.5
79	Azerbaijan	C	66.2	67.1
80	Panama	C	65.8	73.8
81	Algeria	C	68.3	64.7
82	Jordan	C	75.0	64.6
83	Kazakhstan	C	64.2	77.4
84	Trinidad and Tobago	C	68.4	64.2
85	Bosnia and Herzegovina	C	62.6	65.9
86	El Salvador	C	62.3	64.3
87	Uzbekistan	C	73.0	61.9
88	Philippines	C	71.5	60.3
89	South Africa	C	68.1	60.2
90	Ecuador	C	68.3	57.7
91	Bahamas, The	C	69.6	57.5
92	Suriname	C	65.4	56.8
93	Paraguay	C	64.2	52.5
94	Rwanda	C	68.4	52.4
95	Jamaica	D	60.3	73.6
96	Nigeria	D	59.7	60.8
97	Egypt	D	57.0	71.6
98	Bangladesh	D	65.6	56.7
99	Peru	D	58.5	56.1
100	Tajikistan	D	54.8	52.5
101	Guyana	D	55.4	49.3
102	Senegal	D	68.3	49.1
103	Ghana	D	68.7	47.2
104	Tanzania	D	62.5	45.5
105	Indonesia	D	68.3	44.6
106	Burkina Faso	D	57.7	43.5
107	Vietnam	D	61.7	43.5
108	Benin	D	67.1	43.3
109	Cote d'Ivoire	D	65.9	43.3
110	Zambia	D	58.2	41.4
111	Malawi	D	66.9	41.2
112	Sierra Leone	D	60.5	40.2
113	Nicaragua	D	60.3	39.8
114	Namibia	D	70.5	39.5
115	Kenya	D	65.4	39.0
116	Dominican Republic	D	76.4	38.8
117	Bolivia	E	52.5	53.1
118	Bhutan	E	49.3	52.6
119	Lesotho	E	64.4	42.9
120	Nepal	E	51.9	41.3
121	Pakistan	E	60.9	41.1
122	Gambia	E	62.0	40.4
123	Angola	E	51.1	39.1
124	Laos	E	49.1	38.9
125	Uganda	E	64.0	38.8
126	Mali	E	50.5	37.8
127	Togo	E	64.2	36.4
128	Niger	E	58.3	35.9
129	Zimbabwe	E	57.4	35.7
130	Mozambique	E	59.6	35.6
131	Ethiopia	E	48.4	34.8
132	Myanmar	E	44.0	34.8
133	Madagascar	E	41.7	34.7
134	Liberia	E	51.9	34.6
135	Cambodia	E	34.4	36.1
136	Guinea	E	44.4	33.1
137	Gabon	E	47.6	32.3
138	Eswatini	E	55.2	32.0
139	Cameroon	E	62.1	31.8
140	Mauritania	E	61.7	31.4
141	Honduras	E	49.9	30.0
142	Chad	E	44.9	27.3
143	Congo, Rep.	E	36.9	26.8
144	Papua New Guinea	E	49.4	26.3
145	Turkmenistan	E	55.9	25.9
146	Guinea-Bissau	E	46.4	25.6
147	Sudan	E	25.2	35.9
148	Comoros	E	69.6	24.9
149	Haiti	E	51.0	24.8
150	Burundi	E	46.0	23.6
151	Central African Republic	E	33.6	21.9
152	Yemen, Rep.	E	38.6	21.6
153	Libya	E	42.4	19.4
154	Congo, Dem. Rep	E	34.5	19.0
155	Afghanistan	E	31.7	15.0
156	Lebanon	E	69.3	14.4

Please read our Terms of Service and Disclaimer relating to data on this page.

Download Data

Key Insights

Methodologies and Concepts

Data Quality Key

Data Quality Index numbers shown on a scale of 0-100.
0 = Poor, 100 = Excelent.
Grade definitions:
A: As good as it gets
B: Good
C: Use with caution
D: Poor
E: Extremely poor quality

Most popular:

Asia - Pacific

Americas

Europe

Africa