Who's the Fairest of Them All?

Spoiler alert: it's not us. The United States didn't even make the top 20. The table below ranks 138 countries across multiple global indexes that measure corruption, democracy, rule of law, government effectiveness, and individual freedom. Depending on who's counting, there are between 193 and 237 countries in the world. Countries that were missing from more than two indexes were removed. The ranking is based on total score, but you can sort by country name or any individual index.

A few things to know before you scroll:

• Government Type is based on where governing power originates — not what the country calls itself. [Learn more here.]
• Democracy Status comes from the Economist Intelligence Unit's Democracy Index. Full democracy means the system is functioning as designed. Flawed democracy means the country holds elections and calls itself a democracy, but institutions have significant weaknesses. Hybrid regime means democratic elements exist alongside authoritarian ones. Authoritarian regime means it's not a democracy regardless of what it claims.
• Lower Legislature Representation describes how legislators are elected. Proportional — seats are allocated based on vote share — is what Amendment No. 1 proposes, and it's the most common system worldwide. Single-winner — one candidate wins per district — is what the United States currently uses. MMP (mixed-member proportional) uses both.
• Political Parties is the number of parties with seats in the lower legislature. For context, the United States has two.
• Density is people per square kilometer of land. It's included to help put each country's scale and resource pressure in perspective.