Min-max rescaling has become the default method for building global indicator indices.

Evidence

Another approach, extremely popular in the global indices literature, rescales by using some version of the minimum of the data to determine “low” and some variant of the maximum of the data to determine “high.” The minimum and maximum are used to rescale everything, typically into [0, 1]. The use of the min-max procedure, or variants on it, has become the default in the global indicators industry. — Gary Goertz, Social Science Concepts and Measurement, 871

Categorization

• SEED: Article angle: ‘The Indicator Industry’ — how a single arbitrary rescaling convention quietly decides who counts as worst in the world.