Version 2026-09-12 · CC BY 4.0

    The Registry Access Index

    Most countries claim to have a public company register. We measured what happens when you actually search one. Across 9,459 real searches in 54 countries between 2026-08-26 and 2026-09-12, 61.3% returned no record at all.

    10
    countries genuinely open
    10
    partially open
    34
    effectively closed in practice
    Download CSV Download JSONMethodology Live registry status Reliability Observatory

    What the measurement shows

    The gap between the best and worst performers is not marginal. United Kingdom, Norway, France return a record for effectively every search we send them. Colombia, Philippines, Malaysia return almost nothing, despite each operating a register that is formally described as public.

    The distinction that matters is not whether a register exists but whether it can be searched by name, without a fee, without a login, and without a desk visit. On that test only 10 of 54 measured countries pass cleanly.

    Full ranking

    Registry access score by country, version 2026-09-12
    #CountryScoreBandSearchesReturned a record
    1United Kingdom100Open159100%
    2Norway95Open119100%
    3France95Open53100%
    4Denmark94Open19498.5%
    5Australia84Open23498.3%
    6Estonia80Open35100%
    7Belgium75Open6956.5%
    8Singapore70Open8378.3%
    9Canada66Open19775.6%
    10Japan63Open8362.7%
    11Czechia59Partially open8852.3%
    12Brazil56Partially open15846.8%
    13United States45Partially open34599.1%
    14Finland45Partially open82100%
    15Taiwan43Partially open13616.9%
    16Peru40Partially open12011.7%
    17New Zealand34Partially open10475%
    18Switzerland33Partially open7074.3%
    19Austria33Partially open4173.2%
    20Spain30Partially open45044%
    21Sweden28Effectively closed16761.7%
    22Germany27Effectively closed15560%
    23Poland24Effectively closed14452.8%
    24Italy22Effectively closed22049.5%
    25Netherlands22Effectively closed9948.5%
    26Ireland21Effectively closed9845.9%
    27South Africa19Effectively closed1,45319.3%
    28United Arab Emirates19Effectively closed17342.8%
    29Hong Kong17Effectively closed45238.7%
    30Mexico17Effectively closed33338.4%
    31Iceland13Effectively closed5529.1%
    32Hungary11Effectively closed6823.5%
    33Latvia11Effectively closed3324.2%
    34South Korea10Effectively closed38621.2%
    35Chile10Effectively closed25121.9%
    36Portugal10Effectively closed9322.6%
    37Lithuania9Effectively closed6520%
    38Slovakia9Effectively closed6020%
    39Romania9Effectively closed5219.2%
    40Slovenia8Effectively closed3318.2%
    41India7Effectively closed53115.1%
    42Luxembourg7Effectively closed3315.2%
    43Pakistan6Effectively closed48912.5%
    44Israel6Effectively closed5813.8%
    45Bulgaria5Effectively closed30611.1%
    46Ukraine5Effectively closed24311.1%
    47Argentina5Effectively closed8011.3%
    48Croatia5Effectively closed7111.3%
    49Türkiye4Effectively closed1677.8%
    50Thailand4Effectively closed829.8%
    51Greece4Effectively closed219.5%
    52Malaysia2Effectively closed783.8%
    53Philippines1Effectively closed502%
    54Colombia1Effectively closed402.5%

    Countries with fewer than 20 recorded searches in the window are excluded as too small to report. Searches come from LemReveal users, so this reflects demand reaching one service, not global search behaviour. See the methodology.

    Cite this page

    Free to reuse and republish under CC BY 4.0, with credit to LemReveal. Accessed: version 2026-09-12.

    Plain text
    LemReveal (2026). Registry Access Index 2026-09-12, version 2026-09-12. https://lemreveal.com/research/registry-access-index
    HTML link
    Source: <a href="https://lemreveal.com/research/registry-access-index">Registry Access Index 2026-09-12</a>, LemReveal (2026-09-12)
    APA
    LemReveal. (2026). Registry Access Index 2026-09-12 (Version 2026-09-12) [Data set]. Retrieved from https://lemreveal.com/research/registry-access-index
    BibTeX
    @misc{lemreveal2026,
  title  = {Registry Access Index 2026-09-12},
  author = {LemReveal},
  year   = {2026},
  note   = {Version 2026-09-12},
  url    = {https://lemreveal.com/research/registry-access-index}
}