European Quality of Government Index

Data source: European Quality of Government Index

The European Quality of Government Index (EQI) is the result of novel survey data regional (e.g. sub-national) level governance within the EU. The data was first gathered and published in 2010 and then repeated in 2013 and 2017, with the next round expected in 2020. The index is based on a large citizen survey where respondents are asked about perceptions and experiences with public sector corruption, along with the extent to which citizens believe various public sector services are impartially allocated and of good quality. It is the first source of data to date that allows researchers to compare QoG within and across countries in a multi-country context. It aims to provide researchers and policy makers a tool to better understand how governance varies within countries and now, over time. It covers all 28 member states and two accession countries (Serbia and Turkey are also included in the 2013 round). The sub-national regions are at the NUTS 1 or NUTS 2 level, depending on the country. Currently, it provides data for up to 206 regions, depending on the year in question. In the three years of the EQI survey, it has roughly 200,000 respondents in total. Here, it provides both the regional level data, as well as the underlying micro data free of charge for researchers and practitioners interested in regional governance in Europe.

Dataset type
Time-Series
Dataset level
Region

Citation

When using this dataset, please cite as:

• Charron, N., Dijkstra, L., & Lapuente, V. (2014). Regional governance matters: Quality of government within european union member states. Regional Studies, 48(1), 68–90. https://doi.org/10.1080/00343404.2013.770141
• Charron, N., Dijkstra, L., & Lapuente, V. (2015). Mapping the regional divide in europe: A measure for assessing quality of government in 206 european regions. Social Indicators Research, 122(2), 315–346. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-014-0702-y
• Charron, N., Lapuente, V., & Annoni, P. (2019). Measuring quality of government in EU regions across space and time. Papers in Regional Science, 98(5), 1925–1953. https://doi.org/10.1111/pirs.12437
• Charron, N., Lapuente, V., & Bauhr, M. (2021). Sub-national quality of government in EU member states: Presenting the 2021 european quality of government index and its relationship with covid-19 indicators. The QoG Working Paper Series, 2021:4.

Variables in this dataset

Browse variables and select them for download.

Corruption pillar, country centered and min-max (0-100) standardized.

Corruption experiences index (corruption sub-pillar) min-max (0-100) standardized.

Corruption perceptions index (corruption sub-pillar), min-max (0-100) standardized.

EQI index, min-max (0-100) standardized. Detailed information on its calculation method and indicators used for this aggregation can be found in "European Quality of Government Index 2017 Codebook".

Impartiality pillar, country centered and min-max (0-100) standardized.

Quality pillar, country centered and min-max (0-100) standardized.

EQI Index Score
QoG code: eqi_score

Final score of European Quality Index (centered around WGI), all units. Detailed information on its calculation method and indicators used for this aggregation can be found in "European Quality of Gov ...

EQI corruption experiences index, z-score standardized. It constitutes one of the sub-pillars of corruption pillar.

EQI corruption pillar, country centered and z-score standardized. For its calculation, they aggregate the individual scores (‘survey question’) to the corresponding regional level, so that each of que ...

EQI corruption perceptions index, z-score standardized. It constitutes one of the sub-pillars of corruption pillar.

EQI impartiality pillar, country centered and z-score standardized. For its calculation, they aggregate the individual scores (‘survey question’) to the corresponding regional level, so that each of q ...

EQI quality pillar, country centered and z-score standardized. For its calculation, they aggregate the individual scores (‘survey question’) to the corresponding regional level, so that each of questi ...