The 10 most corrupt countries in the world right now

Each year, the Corruption Perceptions Index shapes debates on governance, trust and accountability across the globe. But while the rankings often grab headlines, the way the index is built is less widely understood.

What the CPI is

According to Transparency International, the Corruption Perceptions Index, or CPI, is the world’s most widely used global corruption ranking. It assesses how corrupt a country’s public sector is perceived to be, based on the views of experts and businesspeople.

The organisation stresses that CPI results do not reflect the opinions of Transparency International or its staff, but are drawn from external assessments.

How scores are built

Each country’s CPI score combines data from at least three sources, selected from a total of 13 corruption surveys and expert assessments. These are produced by institutions such as the World Bank and the World Economic Forum.

Countries must appear in at least three of these sources to be included. About 180 countries and territories meet that threshold each year.

Score versus rank

Transparency International draws a clear distinction between a country’s score and its rank. Scores range from 0 to 100, where 0 means “highly corrupt” and 100 means “very clean”.

The CPI focuses on public sector corruption. According to Transparency International, this includes bribery, misuse of public funds, abuse of office for private gain, weak controls on corruption, excessive red tape, nepotism, asset disclosure rules, whistleblower protection, state capture and access to government information.

The List

1. The most corrupt country is South Sudan, which shares last place with Somalia. with an rank of 9
   
2. .The second most corrupt country is Venezuela, with a score of 10.
   
3. Third place is shared by Yemen, Libya and Eritrea, each with a score of 13.
4. The fourth most corrupt position is shared by Sudan and Nicaragua, with a score of 14
5. Fifth place is shared by Syria and North Korea, with a score of 15.
6. Sixth place is shared by Myanmar, Haiti and Afghanistan, with a score of 16
7. Seventh place is shared by Turkmenistan and Burundi, with a score of 17
8. Eighth place goes to Tajikistan, with a score of 19
9. Ninth place is shared by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Comoros and Cambodia, with a score of 20
10. Tenth place is shared by Mozambique and Guinea-Bissau, with a score of 21

Sources: Transparency International

This article is made and published by August M, who may have used AI in the preparation