[Content from the University of Gothemburg site here]
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, 2017, and 2021. 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 quality of government within and across countries in a multi-country context. It aims to provide researchers and policymakers a tool to better understand how governance varies within countries and now, over time.
It covers all 27 EU member states, the UK before Brexit 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, the Index provides data for up to 206 regions, depending on the year in question. In the four waves of the EQI survey, it has roughly 330,000 respondents in total. Due to Brexit, regional data from 2010, 2013 and 2017 have been retrospectively updated in 2021 and older versions of datasets can be found in our Data Archive.
The Quality of Government Institute (QoG) provides both the regional level data, as well as the underlying microdata free of charge for researchers and practitioners interested in regional governance in Europe. In addition to the time-series regional dataset, where QoG keep a common sample of regions over the four waves, QoG provides a full NUTS 2, 2021 EQI data as well for 238 regions in the European Union. Please note that due to standardization, these estimates will be slightly different than the ones provided in the time series data for the year 2021, yet the rank order of regions within countries will not be affected by the addition of the German and Belgian NUTS 2 regions.
Follow this link to see the EQI in detail and access all data