Denmark at tops South Sudan at least
Transparency International has published an annual Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) recently which scores countries around the world by perceived levels of public sector corruption. The CPI is the most widely used global corruption ranking in the world.
CPI 2025 shows that world leaders are failing to act against corruption, which remains a threat to democracy, freedom and justice. While a small number of countries have made progress, the overall picture is one of stagnation and decline, with real consequences for people’s lives.
The CPI ranks 182 countries and territories on a scale from 0 (highly corrupt) to 100 (very clean). The results paint a stark picture: the global average score has fallen to 42, with more than two-thirds of countries scoring below 50. No country scores a perfect 100, and the number of countries scoring above 80 has shrunk from 12 a decade ago to just five.
Corruption continues to pose a serious threat in the Asia Pacific region, according to the CPI 2025.
With an average regional score of 45 out of 100, high levels of corruption appear to have remained largely unaddressed over the past decade, the TI reports said.
Frustration within the region at weak governance and limited accountability were clearly felt in 2025, with a surge in young people taking to the streets to demand action and accountability from their governments.
In climate-change impacted Philippines (32), citizens were outraged by allegations that a substantial amount of public funds were lost to a fake flood relief project. In Indonesia (34), a dozen people died and hundreds were injured as anti-government protests were met with violence and disinformation, whilst protest movements in Nepal (34) brought down the government following a widespread social media ban and growing frustrations around corruption.
Uniting these movements was a sense that those in charge were abusing their power for private interests, while failing to deliver decent public services, a stable economy and fair opportunities for citizens.
Countries such as Maldives (39), Vietnam (41) and Timor Leste (44) show a consistent and statistically significant upward rise since 2012, due to structural reforms that have strengthened oversight institutions, or in the case of Vietnam, due to effective management of petty corruption. However, these countries continue to score on the lower range of the index, with much room for improvement.
Elsewhere in the region, fragile states such as Afghanistan (16), Myanmar (16) and North Korea (15) continue to score at the bottom of the index. Restricted civic space, opaque political finance systems and a lack of democratic checks and balances and independent judiciary, continue to leave these countries particularly vulnerable to corruption, the report added.
“In many countries across Asia Pacific, good governance is being undermined by weak law enforcement, unaccountable leadership and opacity in political funding. With young people demanding better, leaders must act now to curb corruption and strengthen democracy. Meaningful reforms can rebuild public trust and show those in power are finally listening,” said Ilham Mohamed, Asia Pacific Adviser of Transparency International.
Transparency International is calling for countries to implement a new UN resolution on preventing and combating corruption through enhancing transparency in the funding of political parties, public office candidates and electoral campaigns, which countries adopted as part of the UN Convention Against Corruption conference in December.
Since 2012, eight of the 32 countries have significantly improved, including Bhutan (71), Brunei (63) and Laos (34).
Both Thailand (33) and Mongolia (31), continue to score badly and show a consistent downward trend in score since 2012. In Mongolia, there has been a decline in rule of law and accountability, alongside increasing restrictions on civic space.
Top scorers in the region are Singapore (84), New Zealand (81) and Australia (76) which rank third, fourth and 12th in the world, respectively.
Countries with low scores at the bottom of the index include Afghanistan (16), Myanmar (16) and North Korea (15).
The majority of nations in the region (21 out of 31) score below the global average of 42, including major democracies like India (39), Bangladesh (24) and Indonesia (34).
Since its inception in 1995, Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index has become the leading global indicator of public sector corruption. The index scores 182 countries and territories around the world based on perceptions of public sector corruption, using data from 13 external sources, including the World Bank, World Economic Forum, private risk and consulting companies, think tanks and others. The scores reflect the views of experts and business people.
The CPI 2025 shows that corruption remains a serious threat in every part of the world, although there are limited signs of progress.
Leaders must act to tackle abuses of power and the wider factors driving this decline, such as the roll-back of democratic checks and balances, and attacks on independent civil society.
As corruption worsens globally, a decline in bold, accountable leadership is undermining reform.
The number of countries scoring above 80 has shrunk from 12 a decade ago to just five this year. In particular, there is a worrying trend of democracies seeing worsening perceived corruption – from the United States (64), Canada (75) and New Zealand (81), to various parts of Europe, like the United Kingdom (70), France (66) and Sweden (80).
In 2025, a surge of Gen Z–led protests, as young people in countries that score poorly on the CPI – such as Serbia (33) and Peru (30) – took to the streets to demand action and accountability from their governments.
In Nepal (34) and Madagascar (25), these popular protest movements brought down the governments of the day. Uniting these diverse groups of protestors was a sense that those in charge were abusing their power for their own interests, while failing to deliver decent public services, a stable economy and opportunity for everyone else.
Some powerful nations have an indirect impact on corruption levels that extends well beyond their borders. The Russian (22) state has been accused of interfering in other countries’ elections by spreading disinformation and buying votes with the intention to influence voters and drive instability, democratic backsliding and narrowing of civic space.
The United States (64) government’s decision to temporarily freeze and then degrade enforcement of its Foreign Corrupt Practices Act – a key anti-corruption law that prohibits corporate bribery of foreign officials – sends a dangerous signal that bribery and other corrupt practices are acceptable.
Transparency International is calling on governments and leaders across the world to take action to strengthen justice systems, ensure independent oversight of decision making and public spending, guarantee transparency about how political parties and election campaigns are funded, and protect civic space, democracy and media freedom. At the same time, they should collaborate to tackle shared challenges – for example, closing the cross-border channels that enable transnational corruption, such as laundering and hiding stolen funds.
This year, the highest ranked nation was Denmark (89), for the eighth time in a row, with a score of 89. Only a small group of 15 countries, mainly in Western Europe and Asia-Pacific, manage to get scores above 75. Of these, just five reach scores above 80.
Meanwhile, over two thirds of countries (68 per cent) fall below 50, indicating serious corruption problems in most parts of the planet. At the bottom of the index, the countries scoring below 25 are mostly conflict-affected and highly repressive countries, such as Venezuela (10) and the lowest scorers, Somalia and South Sudan, which both score nine.
Countries where civic space is guaranteed and protected tend to control corruption better. Those where the freedoms of expression, assembly and association are duly safeguarded are generally more resilient against corruption and score better on the CPI. However, countries where these freedoms are lacking are more likely to lose control of corruption: 36 of the 50 countries where the CPI scores have significantly declined have also seen a reduction in civic space.
CPI score lower than 50, including in Brazil (35), India (39), Mexico (27), Pakistan (28) and Iraq (28), which are particularly dangerous for journalists reporting on corruption.
Corruption erodes trust, weakens democracy, hampers economic development and further exacerbates inequality, poverty, social division and the environmental crisis.
Exposing corruption and holding the corrupt to account can only happen if we understand the way corruption works and the systems that enable it.
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Corruption can take many forms, and can include behaviours like: public servants to politicians and can happen anywhere in business, government, the courts, the media, and in civil society as well as across all sectors.
Corruption can involve politicians, government officials, public servants, business people or members of the public. The costs of corruption hits politics, society, environment and economy.
(Based on TI report)
