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Top 10 countries with the strongest and weakest rule of law in 2025: Where does India rank compared to US, Pakistan, and China?

Top 10 countries with the strongest and weakest rule of law index in 2025 list: The U.S. drops to No. 27, while China witnesses an uptick, climbing to No. 92 in the WJP Rule of Law Index. Pakistan remains unchanged at No. 130. Read on to find out where India stands globally.

3 min readNew DelhiUpdated: Nov 12, 2025 01:49 PM IST

Top and bottom 10 countries on WJP Rule of Law Index 2025: WJP Rule of Law Index 2025: See where India ranks compared to the US, China, and Pakistan. (Representational Image)

Top 10 countries with the strongest and weakest rule of law index in 2025: The rule of law is the foundation of peace, justice, human rights, and sustainable development in a country. Research indicates that a stronger rule of law correlates with higher economic productivity, greater peace, increased education, and better health outcomes.

However, the global rule of law has been in decline, and its tentative recovery seen over recent years is sharply reversing, according to the WJP Rule of Law Index 2025.

The report further highlights that 68 per cent of countries declined in their rule of law in 2025, up from 57 per cent the previous year, driven by the increase of authoritarian trends and notable drops in constraints on government powers.

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However, Nordic countries are defying this trend of rule of law recession, retaining their previous year’s position. Denmark holds the top spot at No. 1, followed by Norway at No. 2, and Finland and Sweden round out the top 4.

On the contrary, Venezuela at No. 143 and Afghanistan at No. 142 continue to sit at the bottom of the index, with Russia at No. 119 and Sudan at No. 137 witnessing massive declines of 4.9 and 4.4 per cent, respectively.

Rule of Law Around the World:

Scores and rankings of 143 countries and jurisdictions in the WJP Rule of Law Index 2025, where 1 indicates strong adherence to the rule of law and 0 indicates weak adherence. (Source: WJP Rule of Law Index 2025)

Rank	Country	Overall Score	Govt Powers	No Corruption	Open Govt	Rights	Security	Regulatory	Civil Justice	Criminal Justice
1	Denmark	0.90	0.94	0.95	0.85	0.91	0.93	0.89	0.86	0.84
2	Norway	0.89	0.92	0.93	0.88	0.90	0.93	0.88	0.86	0.82
3	Finland	0.87	0.92	0.90	0.84	0.90	0.92	0.85	0.80	0.84
4	Sweden	0.85	0.85	0.91	0.83	0.87	0.93	0.83	0.83	0.78
5	New Zealand	0.83	0.86	0.89	0.82	0.84	0.89	0.85	0.79	0.74
6	Germany	0.83	0.86	0.83	0.79	0.86	0.88	0.84	0.82	0.79
7	Luxembourg	0.83	0.82	0.85	0.81	0.85	0.95	0.85	0.77	0.73
8	Ireland	0.82	0.84	0.82	0.83	0.85	0.93	0.84	0.74	0.74
9	Netherlands	0.82	0.83	0.87	0.80	0.82	0.84	0.83	0.82	0.75
10	Estonia	0.82	0.83	0.83	0.81	0.82	0.91	0.81	0.79	0.76

Indian Express InfoGenIE

Source: WJP Rule of Law Index 2025 | Scroll to view the complete scores

Rank	Country	Overall Score	Govt Powers	No Corruption	Open Govt	Rights	Security	Regulatory	Civil Justice	Criminal Justice
143	Venezuela	0.26	0.18	0.26	0.27	0.28	0.53	0.20	0.26	0.11
142	Afghanistan	0.31	0.34	0.29	0.31	0.24	0.37	0.35	0.32	0.24
141	Cambodia	0.31	0.24	0.23	0.23	0.32	0.66	0.27	0.26	0.27
140	Haiti	0.32	0.34	0.24	0.33	0.42	0.43	0.26	0.33	0.24
139	Nicaragua	0.33	0.22	0.29	0.30	0.28	0.69	0.34	0.28	0.25
138	Myanmar	0.34	0.25	0.40	0.28	0.18	0.60	0.41	0.33	0.23
137	Sudan	0.34	0.25	0.32	0.33	0.30	0.50	0.33	0.35	0.32
136	Congo, Dem. Rep.	0.34	0.39	0.17	0.33	0.39	0.44	0.35	0.35	0.28
135	Egypt	0.35	0.23	0.38	0.23	0.23	0.65	0.35	0.37	0.34
134	Cameroon	0.36	0.37	0.25	0.35	0.35	0.48	0.41	0.42	0.23

Indian Express InfoGenIE

Source: WJP Rule of Law Index 2025 | Scroll to view the complete scores

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How does India rank compared to the US, China, and Pakistan?

The United States, ranked No. 27 with a score of 0.68, slipped one position amid a 2.8 per cent decline.

India fell six places to rank No. 86 globally, with an overall score of 0.49, marking a -1.7 per cent decrease in 2025.

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China, with an overall score of 0.48, ranks 92nd worldwide, showing an upward trend with a 0.8 per cent increase and moving up four places.

Pakistan remains unchanged at position 130, with an overall score of 0.37, reflecting a -2.3 per cent decline.

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Cherry Gupta

Cherry Gupta is an Assistant Manager – Content at The Indian Express. She leads the Top 10 section, curating list-based features on key national and international developments, and manages daily news content. She also produces SEO-driven articles and collaborates with the Lifestyle team to conduct interviews with notable artists and write workplace culture features. ... Read More

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