VoteMerit
Lee Kuan Yew

Lee Kuan Yew

Legacy

🇸🇬Singapore

Rank #35
Score: 74
About Lee Kuan Yew

Lee Kuan Yew (1923–2015) was Singapore’s founding Prime Minister (1959–1990). He led Singapore from a colonial port to a wealthy, highly-managed city-state with strong institutions and rapid economic growth, while exercising tight political control — a foundational and contested legacy.

Scoring Breakdown
Detailed analysis of the politician's score.

HDI
Singapore HDI ≈ 0.946 (long-term improvement during Lee Kuan Yew era)9/10
Source: UNDP — Human Development country insights (2023)
GDP per capita
Singapore GDP per capita (historical growth since independence)9/10
Source: World Bank — Singapore country data (2023)
Gini coefficient
Historical inequality series (various sources)3/10
Source: World Bank — Gini (SGP) (1990)
Employment rate
Employment-to-population ratio ≈ 65.7% (ILOSTAT)5/5
Source: ILOSTAT — Singapore (2024)
Freedom index
Freedom House — Singapore Partly Free historically; political controls under LKY era2/10
Source: Freedom House — Singapore country report (1990)
Corruption index
Transparency Int'l — Singapore CPI (high ranking, low corruption)5/5
Source: Transparency International — Singapore CPI (2024)

Derived Criminal Score
No public criminal convictions recorded20/20
Source: Public record / historical record (2025)