This paper describes and analyses the fiscal rules for subnational governments (SNGs) in OECD countries immediately prior to the COVID-19 crisis. It is based on information from the 2019 survey of fiscal rules for SNGs by the OECD Network on Fiscal Relations across Levels of Government. The paper analyses the details of the application of these SNG fiscal rules, and shows that the effective stringency of statutorily similar rules may vary greatly.