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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 Data is often out of date.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 These five factors used to judge data quality are: Base Year used to calculate the GDP data (chained or years out of date), Standard of National Accounts (SNA) applied, estimated size of the Informal Economy, a proxy for Resources Devoted to Measuring Economic Activity and a proxy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	98.3	A
2	Finland	97.5	A
3	Netherlands	97.4	A
4	Switzerland	97.4	A
5	Norway	97.1	A
6	Sweden	96.7	A
7	New Zealand	96.6	A
8	Luxembourg	96.3	A
9	Germany	96.2	A
10	Austria	96.0	A
11	Canada	95.9	A
12	Ireland	95.7	A
13	Australia	94.8	A
14	United Kingdom	94.4	A
15	United States	94.3	A
16	Japan	94.2	A
17	France	93.1	A
18	Iceland	93.1	A
19	Portugal	92.6	A
20	Estonia	92.5	A
21	Belgium	92.3	A
22	Czechia	91.9	A
23	Lithuania	91.4	A
24	Singapore	91.3	A
25	Slovak Republic	90.9	A
26	Latvia	90.8	A
27	Spain	90.6	A
28	Slovenia	90.5	A
29	Taiwan	90.5	A
30	Italy	89.0	A
31	Korea, Rep.	89.0	A
32	Poland	88.8	B
33	Israel	88.7	B
34	Chile	88.5	B
35	Costa Rica	87.0	B
36	Cyprus	87.0	B
37	Greece	86.6	B
38	Mauritius	85.7	B
39	Romania	85.5	B
40	Hungary	85.4	B
41	Croatia	84.3	B
42	Malta	84.0	B
43	Bulgaria	83.4	B
44	Colombia	80.8	B
45	Moldova	80.4	B
46	North Macedonia	80.3	B
47	United Arab Emirates	80.2	B
48	Dominican Republic	79.8	B
49	Mongolia	79.6	B
50	Brazil	79.0	B
51	South Africa	78.8	B
52	Armenia	78.5	B
53	Uruguay	77.8	B
54	Jordan	77.6	B
55	Türkiye	77.5	B
56	Morocco	77.1	B
57	Georgia	76.2	B
58	Malaysia	76.1	B
59	Ukraine	74.7	B
60	Botswana	74.2	B
61	Philippines	74.2	B
62	Namibia	74.1	B
63	Oman	74.1	C
64	Indonesia	73.8	C
65	Serbia	73.7	C
66	Mexico	73.3	C
67	Rwanda	72.8	C
68	Malawi	72.4	C
69	Algeria	72.3	C
70	Burkina Faso	72.1	C
71	Bahamas, The	71.8	C
72	Senegal	71.6	C
73	Albania	71.5	C
74	Saudi Arabia	71.4	C
75	Belarus	71.2	C
76	Suriname	71.1	C
77	Ghana	71.0	C
78	India	71.0	C
79	Russia	71.0	C
80	Sri Lanka	70.4	C
81	China	70.2	C
82	Cabo Verde	70.1	C
83	Kenya	70.0	C
84	Lebanon	70.0	C
85	Cote d'Ivoire	69.9	C
86	Trinidad and Tobago	69.9	C
87	Guatemala	69.8	C
88	Benin	69.7	C
89	Brunei	69.2	C
90	El Salvador	69.1	C
91	Mauritania	69.1	C
92	Argentina	69.0	C
93	Togo	69.0	C
94	Hong Kong	68.8	D
95	Uganda	68.8	D
96	Qatar	68.1	D
97	Niger	67.3	D
98	Ecuador	67.2	D
99	Pakistan	67.1	D
100	Lesotho	67.0	D
101	Tanzania	66.9	D
102	Tunisia	66.9	D
103	Comoros	66.3	D
104	Bahrain	66.2	D
105	Gambia	66.1	D
106	Paraguay	66.0	D
107	Cameroon	65.6	D
108	Bosnia and Herzegovina	65.5	D
109	Mozambique	65.3	D
110	Uzbekistan	64.7	D
111	Kazakhstan	63.8	D
112	Thailand	63.8	D
113	Zambia	63.5	D
114	Kyrgyzstan	63.3	D
115	Panama	62.8	D
116	Peru	62.7	D
117	Sierra Leone	62.3	D
118	Eswatini	61.1	D
119	Nicaragua	60.3	D
120	Egypt	60.1	D
121	Kuwait	60.0	D
122	Jamaica	59.5	D
123	Guyana	59.3	D
124	Turkmenistan	59.3	D
125	Azerbaijan	55.0	D
126	Bangladesh	59.1	E
127	Liberia	57.5	E
128	Vietnam	57.4	E
129	Myanmar	57.0	E
130	Nigeria	56.2	E
131	Bhutan	56.1	E
132	Ethiopia	56.1	E
133	Zimbabwe	55.2	E
134	Laos	55.0	E
135	Papua New Guinea	53.9	E
136	Haiti	53.0	E
137	Tajikistan	52.7	E
138	Guinea-Bissau	52.5	E
139	Nepal	52.1	E
140	Guinea	50.6	E
141	Madagascar	49.3	E
142	Mali	46.8	E
143	Angola	45.8	E
144	Libya	44.8	E
145	Chad	44.3	E
146	Honduras	44.3	E
147	Burundi	44.2	E
148	Yemen, Rep.	42.9	E
149	Congo, Dem. Rep	42.0	E
150	Congo, Rep.	41.7	E
151	Central African Republic	40.7	E
152	Cambodia	40.6	E
153	Gabon	40.1	E
154	Bolivia	39.4	E
155	Afghanistan	29.9	E
156	Sudan	26.5	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	Switzerland	98.1	A
2	Poland	96.7	A
3	Slovenia	96.6	A
4	Canada	96.5	A
5	Ireland	96.4	A
6	Estonia	96.3	A
7	Lithuania	96.1	A
8	Australia	96.0	A
9	Slovak Republic	95.7	A
10	United States	95.7	A
11	France	95.6	A
12	United Kingdom	95.6	A
13	Armenia	95.4	A
14	Korea, Rep.	95.3	A
15	Japan	95.2	A
16	Mexico	94.8	A
17	North Macedonia	94.8	A
18	Singapore	94.8	A
19	Türkiye	94.8	A
20	Malta	94.7	A
21	Russia	94.4	A
22	Mauritius	94.2	A
23	Brazil	93.9	A
24	Taiwan	93.9	A
25	Mongolia	93.8	A
26	New Zealand	93.8	A
27	Kazakhstan	93.7	A
28	Kyrgyzstan	93.7	A
29	Saudi Arabia	93.2	A
30	Thailand	93.2	A
31	Malaysia	93.1	A
32	Argentina	92.9	B
33	Ukraine	92.7	B
34	Colombia	92.4	B
35	Philippines	92.4	B
36	Chile	92.1	B
37	Belarus	92.0	B
38	Kuwait	91.0	B
39	Panama	90.8	B
40	Egypt	90.7	B
41	Qatar	90.4	B
42	Georgia	90.1	B
43	Vietnam	90.0	B
44	Italy	89.8	B
45	Guatemala	89.7	B
46	Moldova	89.7	B
47	Denmark	89.4	B
48	Peru	89.4	B
49	Sweden	89.3	B
50	Netherlands	89.2	B
51	Spain	89.2	B
52	Norway	89.1	B
53	Portugal	89.1	B
54	Austria	88.9	B
55	China	88.9	B
56	Germany	88.9	B
57	Hungary	88.8	B
58	Finland	88.7	B
59	Indonesia	88.7	B
60	Latvia	88.7	B
61	Oman	88.7	B
62	Czechia	88.6	B
63	Jordan	88.6	C
64	Belgium	88.5	C
65	Greece	88.5	C
66	Azerbaijan	88.4	C
67	Cabo Verde	88.2	C
68	Luxembourg	88.2	C
69	Romania	88.1	C
70	Algeria	88.0	C
71	Bulgaria	88.0	C
72	Costa Rica	88.0	C
73	Cyprus	88.0	C
74	Croatia	87.8	C
75	Tunisia	87.7	C
76	Bhutan	87.4	C
77	Serbia	87.2	C
78	Albania	87.1	C
79	Morocco	87.0	C
80	Iceland	86.7	C
81	Sri Lanka	86.6	C
82	Uruguay	86.6	C
83	Israel	86.5	C
84	Mali	86.2	C
85	Tajikistan	85.9	C
86	Burkina Faso	85.8	C
87	Bosnia and Herzegovina	85.6	C
88	Ghana	85.5	C
89	United Arab Emirates	85.2	C
90	South Africa	84.6	C
91	Honduras	84.4	C
92	Bolivia	84.0	C
93	Cambodia	84.0	D
94	Kenya	83.8	D
95	Sierra Leone	83.8	D
96	Jamaica	83.4	D
97	Turkmenistan	83.2	D
98	Brunei	83.0	D
99	Senegal	83.0	D
100	Dominican Republic	82.9	D
101	Ecuador	82.9	D
102	India	82.9	C
103	Rwanda	82.9	D
104	Benin	82.6	D
105	Myanmar	82.6	D
106	Guyana	82.3	D
107	Suriname	82.2	D
108	Malawi	82.1	D
109	Comoros	81.6	D
110	Madagascar	81.0	D
111	Trinidad and Tobago	80.9	D
112	Cote d'Ivoire	80.7	D
113	El Salvador	80.6	D
114	Botswana	80.5	D
115	Paraguay	80.4	D
116	Laos	80.1	D
117	Bahrain	79.9	D
118	Bahamas, The	79.6	D
119	Togo	79.4	D
120	Gabon	79.1	D
121	Nepal	78.6	D
122	Mozambique	78.0	D
123	Eswatini	77.8	D
124	Namibia	77.7	D
125	Niger	77.7	E
126	Gambia	77.2	E
127	Pakistan	77.0	E
128	Nigeria	76.3	E
129	Bangladesh	75.7	E
130	Congo, Rep.	75.2	E
131	Guinea	74.9	E
132	Zimbabwe	74.8	E
133	Lesotho	74.6	E
134	Liberia	74.4	E
135	Burundi	74.3	E
136	Hong Kong	74.1	E
137	Nicaragua	73.6	E
138	Uganda	73.4	E
139	Mauritania	73.3	E
140	Libya	73.1	E
141	Zambia	72.3	E
142	Sudan	70.6	E
143	Tanzania	70.4	E
144	Uzbekistan	70.1	E
145	Angola	70.0	E
146	Cameroon	70.0	E
147	Haiti	69.3	E
148	Guinea-Bissau	67.3	E
149	Chad	65.3	E
150	Central African Republic	62.9	E
151	Papua New Guinea	62.2	E
152	Ethiopia	60.1	E
153	Yemen, Rep.	58.5	E
154	Congo, Dem. Rep	48.9	E
155	Afghanistan	46.5	E
156	Lebanon	31.4	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	Switzerland	A	97.4	98.1
2	Canada	A	95.9	96.5
3	Ireland	A	95.7	96.4
4	Australia	A	94.8	96.0
5	United Kingdom	A	94.4	95.6
6	United States	A	94.3	95.7
7	Japan	A	94.2	95.2
8	New Zealand	A	96.6	93.8
9	France	A	93.1	95.6
10	Estonia	A	92.5	96.3
11	Lithuania	A	91.4	96.1
12	Singapore	A	91.3	94.8
13	Slovak Republic	A	90.9	95.7
14	Slovenia	A	90.5	96.6
15	Taiwan	A	90.5	93.9
16	Korea, Rep.	A	89.0	95.3
17	Denmark	B	98.3	89.4
18	Sweden	B	96.7	89.3
19	Netherlands	B	97.4	89.2
20	Spain	B	90.6	89.2
21	Norway	B	97.1	89.1
22	Portugal	B	92.6	89.1
23	Italy	B	89.0	89.8
24	Austria	B	96.0	88.9
25	Germany	B	96.2	88.9
26	Poland	B	88.8	96.7
27	Finland	B	97.5	88.7
28	Latvia	B	90.8	88.7
29	Czechia	B	91.9	88.6
30	Chile	B	88.5	92.1
31	Mauritius	B	85.7	94.2
32	Hungary	B	85.4	88.8
33	Malta	B	84.0	94.7
34	Colombia	B	80.8	92.4
35	Moldova	B	80.4	89.7
36	North Macedonia	B	80.3	94.8
37	Mongolia	B	79.6	93.8
38	Brazil	B	79.0	93.9
39	Armenia	B	78.5	95.4
40	Türkiye	B	77.5	94.8
41	Georgia	B	76.2	90.1
42	Malaysia	B	76.1	93.1
43	Ukraine	B	74.7	92.7
44	Philippines	B	74.2	92.4
45	Belgium	C	92.3	88.5
46	Luxembourg	C	96.3	88.2
47	Costa Rica	C	87.0	88.0
48	Cyprus	C	87.0	88.0
49	Iceland	C	93.1	86.7
50	Greece	C	86.6	88.5
51	Israel	C	88.7	86.5
52	Romania	C	85.5	88.1
53	Croatia	C	84.3	87.8
54	Bulgaria	C	83.4	88.0
55	United Arab Emirates	C	80.2	85.2
56	South Africa	C	78.8	84.6
57	Uruguay	C	77.8	86.6
58	Jordan	C	77.6	88.6
59	Morocco	C	77.1	87.0
60	Oman	C	74.1	88.7
61	Indonesia	C	73.8	88.7
62	Serbia	C	73.7	87.2
63	Mexico	C	73.3	94.8
64	Algeria	C	72.3	88.0
65	Burkina Faso	C	72.1	85.8
66	Albania	C	71.5	87.1
67	Saudi Arabia	C	71.4	93.2
68	Belarus	C	71.2	92.0
69	Ghana	C	71.0	85.5
70	India	C	71.0	82.9
71	Russia	C	71.0	94.4
72	Sri Lanka	C	70.4	86.6
73	China	C	70.2	88.9
74	Cabo Verde	C	70.1	88.2
75	Guatemala	C	69.8	89.7
76	Argentina	C	69.0	92.9
77	Dominican Republic	D	79.8	82.9
78	Botswana	D	74.2	80.5
79	Namibia	D	74.1	77.7
80	Rwanda	D	72.8	82.9
81	Malawi	D	72.4	82.1
82	Bahamas, The	D	71.8	79.6
83	Senegal	D	71.6	83.0
84	Suriname	D	71.1	82.2
85	Kenya	D	70.0	83.8
86	Cote d'Ivoire	D	69.9	80.7
87	Trinidad and Tobago	D	69.9	80.9
88	Benin	D	69.7	82.6
89	Brunei	D	69.2	83.0
90	El Salvador	D	69.1	80.6
91	Togo	D	69.0	79.4
92	Qatar	D	68.1	90.4
93	Ecuador	D	67.2	82.9
94	Tunisia	D	66.9	87.7
95	Comoros	D	66.3	81.6
96	Bahrain	D	66.2	79.9
97	Paraguay	D	66.0	80.4
98	Bosnia and Herzegovina	D	65.5	85.6
99	Mozambique	D	65.3	78.0
100	Kazakhstan	D	63.8	93.7
101	Thailand	D	63.8	93.2
102	Kyrgyzstan	D	63.3	93.7
103	Panama	D	62.8	90.8
104	Peru	D	62.7	89.4
105	Sierra Leone	D	62.3	83.8
106	Eswatini	D	61.1	77.8
107	Egypt	D	60.1	90.7
108	Kuwait	D	60.0	91.0
109	Jamaica	D	59.5	83.4
110	Guyana	D	59.3	82.3
111	Turkmenistan	D	59.3	83.2
112	Azerbaijan	D	55.0	88.4
113	Mauritania	E	69.1	73.3
114	Hong Kong	E	68.8	74.1
115	Uganda	E	68.8	73.4
116	Niger	E	67.3	77.7
117	Pakistan	E	67.1	77.0
118	Lesotho	E	67.0	74.6
119	Tanzania	E	66.9	70.4
120	Gambia	E	66.1	77.2
121	Cameroon	E	65.6	70.0
122	Uzbekistan	E	64.7	70.1
123	Zambia	E	63.5	72.3
124	Nicaragua	E	60.3	73.6
125	Bangladesh	E	59.1	75.7
126	Liberia	E	57.5	74.4
127	Vietnam	E	57.4	90.0
128	Myanmar	E	57.0	82.6
129	Nigeria	E	56.2	76.3
130	Bhutan	E	56.1	87.4
131	Ethiopia	E	56.1	60.1
132	Zimbabwe	E	55.2	74.8
133	Laos	E	55.0	80.1
134	Papua New Guinea	E	53.9	62.2
135	Haiti	E	53.0	69.3
136	Tajikistan	E	52.7	85.9
137	Guinea-Bissau	E	52.5	67.3
138	Nepal	E	52.1	78.6
139	Guinea	E	50.6	74.9
140	Madagascar	E	49.3	81.0
141	Mali	E	46.8	86.2
142	Angola	E	45.8	70.0
143	Libya	E	44.8	73.1
144	Chad	E	44.3	65.3
145	Honduras	E	44.3	84.4
146	Burundi	E	44.2	74.3
147	Yemen, Rep.	E	42.9	58.5
148	Congo, Dem. Rep	E	42.0	48.9
149	Congo, Rep.	E	41.7	75.2
150	Central African Republic	E	40.7	62.9
151	Cambodia	E	40.6	84.0
152	Gabon	E	40.1	79.1
153	Bolivia	E	39.4	84.0
154	Lebanon	E	70.0	31.4
155	Afghanistan	E	29.9	46.5
156	Sudan	E	26.5	70.6

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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

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