Guyana has slipped to 81st among 143 countries in the World Justice Project’s 2026 Rule of Law Index, with declines recorded in freedom of expression, assembly and civic participation, as well as judicial checks on government power.
The country’s overall score decreased by less than one per cent to 0.50. It ranked 18th among 32 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean and 50th among 51 high-income countries assessed.
The findings are contained in a release accompanying the index, which measures how the rule of law is experienced and perceived through household and expert surveys.
Guyana was among the 62 per cent of countries where the rule of law deteriorated. Although fewer countries declined than in the previous year, the World Justice Project said deterioration continued to outnumber improvements globally.
Guyana’s weakest global ranking among the eight main categories was in order and security, where it placed 108th. Open government was its second-lowest category, at 95th globally and 27th regionally.
The country ranked 68th for constraints on government powers, 70th for fundamental rights, 72nd for civil justice, 73rd for absence of corruption, 78th for regulatory enforcement and 84th for criminal justice.
Its position within the high-income group was near the bottom across all eight categories. Guyana placed 50th of 51 for order and security, 49th for regulatory enforcement, and 48th for absence of corruption, civil justice and criminal justice. It ranked 47th for constraints on government powers and open government, and 46th for fundamental rights.
The World Justice Project said Guyana was among countries recording a sustained five-year decline in at least one of three safeguards against authoritarian rule: constraints on government powers, open government or fundamental rights.
“Authoritarianism is no longer an emerging trend—it has become entrenched,” the organisation stated, reporting that more than 86 per cent of countries had experienced such a decline in at least one of those areas.
The release did not identify which of the three safeguards accounted for Guyana’s five-year deterioration.
It did, however, specifically identify Guyana among countries where freedom of opinion and expression, freedom of assembly and association, and civic participation declined. Globally, these measures deteriorated in 64 per cent, 67 per cent and 65 per cent of countries, respectively.
Guyana was also included among countries where judicial constraints on government powers weakened. That measure declined in 63 per cent of countries assessed.
The organisation identified improper government influence as a major factor behind weakening civil and criminal justice systems worldwide. Civil justice deteriorated in 64 per cent of countries and criminal justice in 58 per cent. The country release did not provide detailed Guyana-specific findings on interference in those systems.
There was a mixed assessment of civil justice. Guyana was not among the 54 per cent of countries recording improvements in access and affordability, but it was among the 52 per cent where civil justice became less discriminatory.
The latest ranking follows Guyana’s placement at 80th among 143 countries in the 2025 index, which the government rejected.
Stabroek News reported on October 31, 2025, that the administration questioned the age of the underlying data and the circumstances in which it had been collected. The government said the assessment relied on household polling from 2018 and 2022 and challenged the transparency of surveys conducted by the StatMark Group. Those objections concerned the 2025 assessment.
The supplied 2026 release gives the overall international survey totals but does not specify when Guyana’s household polling was conducted, the local sample size or the detailed scores for its 44 sub-factors.
Stabroek News had reported that Guyana ranked 77th among 142 countries and 16th regionally in the index published in October 2024, with its overall score then also declining by less than one per cent.
Across Latin America and the Caribbean, 19 of the 32 countries assessed recorded declines in the latest index. Thirteen of those had also deteriorated in the previous year.
Uruguay led the region, ranking 22nd globally, followed by Costa Rica and Barbados. Nicaragua, Haiti and Venezuela occupied the region’s lowest positions.
Despite those declines, the region accounted for half of the ten largest improvements worldwide between 2025 and 2026. Brazil recorded the second-largest improvement globally over the three-year period from 2023 to 2026, with an increase of 3.17 per cent.
The World Justice Project also pointed to international patterns linking stronger rule of law with economic prosperity, price stability and lower credit risk. These broad comparisons do not establish a Guyana-specific relationship between economic performance and its index score.
Denmark led the global rankings, followed by Norway, Finland, Sweden and Luxembourg. Venezuela ranked last, with Afghanistan, Haiti, Cambodia and Nicaragua immediately above it.
The World Justice Project describes itself as an independent, nonpartisan organisation. Its index draws on more than 215,000 household surveys and 3,400 practitioner and expert surveys across countries and jurisdictions covering approximately 95 per cent of the world’s population.
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