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Uzbekistan has placed 79th out of 143 countries in the World Justice Project’s 2026 Rule of Law Index, scoring 0.50 on a zero-to-one scale where higher figures indicate stronger adherence to rule-of-law principles. The result positions the country between Hungary (78th) and Thailand (80th), and in the same scoring band as Guyana and Vietnam, which placed 81st and 82nd respectively.
The WJP classifies Uzbekistan within the Eastern Europe and Central Asia region and among lower-middle-income economies. Its overall score of 0.50 places it below Panama, Trinidad and Tobago (both 0.52), and Sri Lanka, Indonesia and Brazil (0.51), while it outperforms India, Ukraine, Tunisia, Morocco and Albania, which recorded scores of 0.48 to 0.49.
A Stark Internal Divide
The index’s most striking finding for Uzbekistan is not its overall rank but the 105-place gap between its best and worst individual factor scores — a spread of 0.54 points across the eight dimensions the WJP measures.
The country’s strongest performance came in Order and Security, where it scored 0.90 and ranked 15th globally. That factor captures crime levels, civil conflict and the use of violence to resolve disputes — areas where Uzbekistan outperforms the vast majority of the 143 countries assessed.
The picture reverses sharply on accountability and rights. Constraints on Government Powers drew a score of 0.37 and a ranking of 115th. Open Government — which covers transparency, access to public information and citizen participation in decision-making — produced the country’s lowest score of 0.36 and its lowest ranking of 120th. Fundamental Rights scored 0.43, placing Uzbekistan 109th.
Mid-Table on Justice and Corruption
Uzbekistan’s performance on justice and anti-corruption indicators sits in the middle of the index. Absence of Corruption scored 0.48, yielding a relatively stronger 65th place. Civil Justice reached 0.52 and 73rd, while Criminal Justice scored 0.46 and ranked 67th. Regulatory Enforcement — measuring how consistently rules and regulations are applied — also scored 0.46, placing the country 90th.
The combined picture the index presents is of a state that maintains firm public order but has yet to translate that stability into meaningful constraints on executive power, government transparency or the protection of fundamental rights. The 2026 edition of the WJP index draws on surveys of the general public, legal practitioners and subject-matter experts across all 143 countries and jurisdictions assessed.