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 Data is often out of date.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 These five factors used to judge data quality are: Base Year used to calculate the GDP data (chained or years out of date), Standard of National Accounts (SNA) applied, estimated size of the Informal Economy, a proxy for Resources Devoted to Measuring Economic Activity and a proxy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

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Africa
Asia Pacific
Americas
Europe
Rank Country World Economics
Data Quality
Index		 World Economics
Data Grade
(A-E)
1 Switzerland 98.6 A
2 New Zealand 98.0 A
3 Netherlands 97.9 A
4 Denmark 97.6 A
5 Luxembourg 97.5 A
6 Finland 97.4 A
7 Sweden 97.3 A
8 Norway 97.1 A
9 Germany 97.0 A
10 Canada 96.7 A
11 Ireland 96.6 A
12 Austria 96.5 A
13 Australia 96.3 A
14 United Kingdom 96.3 A
15 Japan 95.6 A
16 Iceland 95.5 A
17 United States 95.1 A
18 France 94.9 A
19 Belgium 93.8 A
20 Czechia 93.2 A
21 Portugal 92.7 A
22 Singapore 92.4 A
23 Spain 90.8 A
24 Slovenia 89.8 A
25 Taiwan 89.7 A
26 Korea, Rep. 89.6 A
27 Israel 89.2 A
28 Hong Kong 88.7 A
29 Chile 88.5 A
30 Italy 88.4 A
31 Cyprus 87.3 A
32 Malta 86.7 B
33 Costa Rica 86.6 B
34 Mauritius 86.6 B
35 Greece 86.5 B
36 Romania 84.6 B
37 Poland 84.5 B
38 United Arab Emirates 83.8 B
39 Croatia 83.6 B
40 Bulgaria 82.1 B
41 Estonia 81.2 B
42 Latvia 81.0 B
43 Mongolia 80.7 B
44 Lithuania 80.4 B
45 Bahamas, The 80.2 B
46 Slovak Republic 80.1 B
47 Armenia 79.7 B
48 Oman 79.7 B
49 Uruguay 79.5 B
50 Moldova 78.8 B
51 Brazil 78.4 B
52 North Macedonia 77.6 B
53 Colombia 77.5 B
54 Dominican Republic 76.8 B
55 South Africa 76.6 B
56 Georgia 75.9 B
57 Jordan 75.4 B
58 Türkiye 74.5 B
59 Malaysia 74.4 B
60 Hungary 74.0 B
61 Bahrain 73.6 B
62 Serbia 73.6 B
63 Qatar 73.5 C
64 Indonesia 73.4 C
65 China 72.8 C
66 Malawi 72.8 C
67 Morocco 72.6 C
68 Namibia 72.5 C
69 Saudi Arabia 72.3 C
70 Philippines 72.0 C
71 Ukraine 72.0 C
72 Algeria 71.7 C
73 Botswana 71.6 C
74 Ghana 71.0 C
75 Sri Lanka 70.8 C
76 Suriname 70.6 C
77 Mexico 70.3 C
78 Rwanda 70.2 C
79 Cabo Verde 70.1 C
80 Belarus 69.8 C
81 Russia 69.5 C
82 Albania 69.2 C
83 Burkina Faso 69.1 C
84 Brunei 68.7 C
85 Togo 68.5 C
86 Senegal 68.1 C
87 Niger 68.0 C
88 Argentina 67.7 C
89 Lesotho 67.6 C
90 Benin 67.5 C
91 Cote d'Ivoire 67.5 C
92 El Salvador 67.5 C
93 India 67.4 C
94 Guatemala 67.3 D
95 Trinidad and Tobago 67.2 D
96 Mauritania 66.9 D
97 Uganda 66.8 D
98 Kenya 66.6 D
99 Turkmenistan 66.1 D
100 Comoros 66.0 D
101 Lebanon 65.8 D
102 Pakistan 65.8 D
103 Kuwait 65.6 D
104 Gambia 65.1 D
105 Kyrgyzstan 64.4 D
106 Peru 64.0 D
107 Mozambique 63.9 D
108 Tunisia 63.8 D
109 Tanzania 63.5 D
110 Paraguay 63.2 D
111 Kazakhstan 63.1 D
112 Ecuador 62.8 D
113 Bosnia and Herzegovina 62.2 D
114 Thailand 61.7 D
115 Cameroon 61.5 D
116 Eswatini 61.4 D
117 Sierra Leone 61.3 D
118 Zambia 60.8 D
119 Uzbekistan 60.6 D
120 Azerbaijan 59.4 D
121 Panama 59.1 D
122 Myanmar 57.9 D
123 Tajikistan 57.1 D
124 Nicaragua 57.0 D
125 Egypt 56.9 E
126 Vietnam 56.4 E
127 Jamaica 55.5 E
128 Guyana 55.4 E
129 Bangladesh 54.4 E
130 Bhutan 54.4 E
131 Liberia 54.4 E
132 Nigeria 53.3 E
133 Papua New Guinea 53.3 E
134 Haiti 52.6 E
135 Laos 52.2 E
136 Ethiopia 51.8 E
137 Zimbabwe 51.7 E
138 Nepal 51.3 E
139 Guinea-Bissau 50.9 E
140 Madagascar 49.4 E
141 Guinea 47.6 E
142 Burundi 44.6 E
143 Chad 44.4 E
144 Mali 44.1 E
145 Angola 41.7 E
146 Libya 41.4 E
147 Congo, Rep. 40.9 E
148 Cambodia 40.5 E
149 Honduras 40.4 E
150 Yemen, Rep. 39.9 E
151 Central African Republic 38.2 E
152 Congo, Dem. Rep 36.8 E
153 Gabon 36.6 E
154 Bolivia 35.8 E
155 Sudan 31.4 E
156 Afghanistan 28.6 E


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



Population Data Quality Ratings

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Africa
Asia Pacific
Americas
Europe
Rank Country World Economics
Data Quality
Index		 World Economics
Data Grade
(A-E)
1 Ireland 99.3 A
2 Kuwait 99.3 A
3 Australia 98.5 A
4 Canada 98.5 A
5 Malta 98.5 A
6 Slovenia 98.5 A
7 United Kingdom 98.5 A
8 Armenia 98.0 A
9 France 97.8 A
10 Japan 97.8 A
11 Korea, Rep. 97.8 A
12 Oman 97.8 A
13 Qatar 97.8 A
14 United States 97.8 A
15 Singapore 97.7 A
16 Saudi Arabia 97.6 A
17 Kyrgyzstan 97.0 A
18 Mauritius 96.4 A
19 New Zealand 96.3 A
20 Mongolia 96.1 A
21 Russia 94.9 A
22 Brazil 94.8 A
23 Hong Kong 94.8 A
24 Taiwan 94.8 A
25 Thailand 94.4 A
26 Türkiye 94.4 A
27 Poland 94.3 A
28 Kazakhstan 94.2 A
29 China 93.8 A
30 Belarus 93.7 A
31 Argentina 93.5 A
32 Mexico 93.2 B
33 Malaysia 93.1 B
34 North Macedonia 92.9 B
35 Chile 92.7 B
36 Philippines 92.6 B
37 Turkmenistan 92.2 B
38 Ukraine 92.2 B
39 Colombia 92.1 B
40 Egypt 91.8 B
41 Italy 91.8 B
42 Azerbaijan 91.7 B
43 Moldova 91.4 B
44 Tajikistan 91.4 B
45 Vietnam 91.1 B
46 Austria 91.0 B
47 Belgium 91.0 B
48 Cyprus 91.0 B
49 Czechia 91.0 B
50 Denmark 91.0 B
51 Germany 91.0 B
52 Greece 91.0 B
53 Iceland 91.0 B
54 Luxembourg 91.0 B
55 Netherlands 91.0 B
56 Norway 91.0 B
57 Portugal 91.0 B
58 Spain 91.0 B
59 Sweden 91.0 B
60 Peru 90.8 B
61 Georgia 90.5 B
62 Bahamas, The 90.3 C
63 Bahrain 90.3 C
64 Finland 90.3 C
65 Indonesia 90.3 B
66 Switzerland 90.3 C
67 United Arab Emirates 90.3 C
68 Guatemala 90.2 C
69 Cabo Verde 89.9 C
70 Israel 89.5 C
71 Panama 89.3 C
72 Jordan 89.2 C
73 Costa Rica 89.1 C
74 Serbia 88.8 C
75 Croatia 88.3 C
76 Albania 88.2 C
77 Bulgaria 88.1 C
78 Romania 87.9 C
79 Bhutan 87.5 C
80 Lithuania 87.2 C
81 Sri Lanka 87.2 C
82 Uruguay 87.0 C
83 Ghana 86.8 C
84 Estonia 86.5 C
85 Slovak Republic 86.5 C
86 Mali 86.3 C
87 Algeria 86.2 C
88 Morocco 86.0 C
89 Burkina Faso 85.2 C
90 Tunisia 85.0 C
91 South Africa 84.9 C
92 Bosnia and Herzegovina 84.4 C
93 Myanmar 84.4 C
94 India 84.2 D
95 Sierra Leone 84.1 D
96 Cambodia 83.7 D
97 Malawi 83.7 D
98 Bolivia 83.5 D
99 Rwanda 83.5 D
100 Honduras 83.2 D
101 Dominican Republic 83.1 D
102 Suriname 83.0 D
103 El Salvador 82.7 D
104 Comoros 82.3 D
105 Benin 82.1 D
106 Kenya 81.9 D
107 Madagascar 81.9 D
108 Cote d'Ivoire 81.8 D
109 Latvia 81.7 D
110 Senegal 81.6 D
111 Jamaica 81.5 D
112 Laos 81.0 D
113 Nepal 80.9 D
114 Ecuador 80.8 D
115 Guyana 80.5 D
116 Eswatini 80.4 D
117 Togo 80.4 D
118 Trinidad and Tobago 79.9 D
119 Paraguay 79.1 D
120 Hungary 79.0 D
121 Mozambique 78.9 D
122 Botswana 78.5 D
123 Gabon 78.4 D
124 Pakistan 78.4 D
125 Gambia 78.3 E
126 Niger 78.3 E
127 Lesotho 77.2 E
128 Burundi 77.0 E
129 Namibia 76.8 E
130 Guinea 75.9 E
131 Nigeria 75.4 E
132 Congo, Rep. 75.0 E
133 Bangladesh 74.2 E
134 Uganda 73.9 E
135 Mauritania 73.7 E
136 Liberia 73.6 E
137 Zimbabwe 73.3 E
138 Sudan 73.1 E
139 Nicaragua 72.8 E
140 Haiti 72.6 E
141 Libya 72.2 E
142 Zambia 71.2 E
143 Brunei 71.0 E
144 Tanzania 69.7 E
145 Guinea-Bissau 68.5 E
146 Cameroon 68.2 E
147 Uzbekistan 68.0 E
148 Angola 67.4 E
149 Chad 65.5 E
150 Papua New Guinea 64.1 E
151 Central African Republic 61.3 E
152 Ethiopia 58.1 E
153 Yemen, Rep. 57.4 E
154 Afghanistan 47.0 E
155 Congo, Dem. Rep 46.8 E
156 Lebanon 28.7 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.

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Africa
Asia Pacific
Americas
Europe
Rank
 Country World Economics Data
Grade
(A-E)		 World Economics GDP
Data Quality Rating
Index		 World Economics Population
Data Quality Rating
Index
1 Canada A 96.7 98.5
2 Ireland A 96.6 99.3
3 Australia A 96.3 98.5
4 New Zealand A 98.0 96.3
5 United Kingdom A 96.3 98.5
6 Japan A 95.6 97.8
7 United States A 95.1 97.8
8 France A 94.9 97.8
9 Singapore A 92.4 97.7
10 Slovenia A 89.8 98.5
11 Taiwan A 89.7 94.8
12 Korea, Rep. A 89.6 97.8
13 Hong Kong A 88.7 94.8
14 Austria B 96.5 91.0
15 Belgium B 93.8 91.0
16 Czechia B 93.2 91.0
17 Denmark B 97.6 91.0
18 Germany B 97.0 91.0
19 Iceland B 95.5 91.0
20 Luxembourg B 97.5 91.0
21 Netherlands B 97.9 91.0
22 Norway B 97.1 91.0
23 Portugal B 92.7 91.0
24 Sweden B 97.3 91.0
25 Spain B 90.8 91.0
26 Chile B 88.5 92.7
27 Italy B 88.4 91.8
28 Cyprus B 87.3 91.0
29 Malta B 86.7 98.5
30 Mauritius B 86.6 96.4
31 Greece B 86.5 91.0
32 Poland B 84.5 94.3
33 Mongolia B 80.7 96.1
34 Armenia B 79.7 98.0
35 Oman B 79.7 97.8
36 Moldova B 78.8 91.4
37 Brazil B 78.4 94.8
38 North Macedonia B 77.6 92.9
39 Colombia B 77.5 92.1
40 Georgia B 75.9 90.5
41 Türkiye B 74.5 94.4
42 Malaysia B 74.4 93.1
43 Finland C 97.4 90.3
44 Switzerland C 98.6 90.3
45 Israel C 89.2 89.5
46 Costa Rica C 86.6 89.1
47 Romania C 84.6 87.9
48 United Arab Emirates C 83.8 90.3
49 Croatia C 83.6 88.3
50 Bulgaria C 82.1 88.1
51 Estonia C 81.2 86.5
52 Lithuania C 80.4 87.2
53 Bahamas, The C 80.2 90.3
54 Slovak Republic C 80.1 86.5
55 Uruguay C 79.5 87.0
56 South Africa C 76.6 84.9
57 Jordan C 75.4 89.2
58 Bahrain C 73.6 90.3
59 Serbia C 73.6 88.8
60 Qatar C 73.5 97.8
61 Indonesia C 73.4 90.3
62 China C 72.8 93.8
63 Morocco C 72.6 86.0
64 Saudi Arabia C 72.3 97.6
65 Philippines C 72.0 92.6
66 Ukraine C 72.0 92.2
67 Algeria C 71.7 86.2
68 Ghana C 71.0 86.8
69 Sri Lanka C 70.8 87.2
70 Mexico C 70.3 93.2
71 Cabo Verde C 70.1 89.9
72 Belarus C 69.8 93.7
73 Russia C 69.5 94.9
74 Albania C 69.2 88.2
75 Burkina Faso C 69.1 85.2
76 Argentina C 67.7 93.5
77 Latvia D 81.0 81.7
78 Dominican Republic D 76.8 83.1
79 Hungary D 74.0 79.0
80 Malawi D 72.8 83.7
81 Botswana D 71.6 78.5
82 Suriname D 70.6 83.0
83 Rwanda D 70.2 83.5
84 Togo D 68.5 80.4
85 Senegal D 68.1 81.6
86 Benin D 67.5 82.1
87 Cote d'Ivoire D 67.5 81.8
88 El Salvador D 67.5 82.7
89 India D 67.4 84.2
90 Guatemala D 67.3 90.2
91 Trinidad and Tobago D 67.2 79.9
92 Kenya D 66.6 81.9
93 Turkmenistan D 66.1 92.2
94 Comoros D 66.0 82.3
95 Pakistan D 65.8 78.4
96 Kuwait D 65.6 99.3
97 Kyrgyzstan D 64.4 97.0
98 Peru D 64.0 90.8
99 Mozambique D 63.9 78.9
100 Tunisia D 63.8 85.0
101 Paraguay D 63.2 79.1
102 Kazakhstan D 63.1 94.2
103 Ecuador D 62.8 80.8
104 Bosnia and Herzegovina D 62.2 84.4
105 Thailand D 61.7 94.4
106 Eswatini D 61.4 80.4
107 Sierra Leone D 61.3 84.1
108 Azerbaijan D 59.4 91.7
109 Panama D 59.1 89.3
110 Myanmar D 57.9 84.4
111 Tajikistan D 57.1 91.4
112 Namibia E 72.5 76.8
113 Brunei E 68.7 71.0
114 Niger E 68.0 78.3
115 Lesotho E 67.6 77.2
116 Mauritania E 66.9 73.7
117 Uganda E 66.8 73.9
118 Gambia E 65.1 78.3
119 Tanzania E 63.5 69.7
120 Cameroon E 61.5 68.2
121 Zambia E 60.8 71.2
122 Uzbekistan E 60.6 68.0
123 Nicaragua E 57.0 72.8
124 Egypt E 56.9 91.8
125 Vietnam E 56.4 91.1
126 Jamaica E 55.5 81.5
127 Guyana E 55.4 80.5
128 Bangladesh E 54.4 74.2
129 Bhutan E 54.4 87.5
130 Liberia E 54.4 73.6
131 Nigeria E 53.3 75.4
132 Papua New Guinea E 53.3 64.1
133 Haiti E 52.6 72.6
134 Laos E 52.2 81.0
135 Ethiopia E 51.8 58.1
136 Zimbabwe E 51.7 73.3
137 Nepal E 51.3 80.9
138 Guinea-Bissau E 50.9 68.5
139 Madagascar E 49.4 81.9
140 Guinea E 47.6 75.9
141 Burundi E 44.6 77.0
142 Chad E 44.4 65.5
143 Mali E 44.1 86.3
144 Angola E 41.7 67.4
145 Libya E 41.4 72.2
146 Congo, Rep. E 40.9 75.0
147 Cambodia E 40.5 83.7
148 Honduras E 40.4 83.2
149 Yemen, Rep. E 39.9 57.4
150 Central African Republic E 38.2 61.3
151 Congo, Dem. Rep E 36.8 46.8
152 Gabon E 36.6 78.4
153 Bolivia E 35.8 83.5
154 Sudan E 31.4 73.1
155 Lebanon E 65.8 28.7
156 Afghanistan E 28.6 47.0



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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