Most corrupt countries in the world, ranked by CPI score

On 10 February 2026, Transparency International (TI) published its CPI 2025 findings: the global average had dropped for the first time in more than a decade, to 42 out of 100. More than two thirds of countries score below 50. Many searches read the ranking the wrong way round. Rank 1 is Denmark at 89, the cleanest, and the most corrupt countries share rank 181. How compliance teams read these scores beside FATF listings is covered in the guide to high risk countries and FATF lists.

What is corruption, and what does the CPI count?

TI defines corruption as "the abuse of entrusted power for private gain". It takes many forms, from bribery to embezzlement of public funds.

The CPI counts one part of it: corruption in the public sector, as experts and businesspeople perceive it, down to low level administrative corruption. TI's 2025 report gives the everyday version, a parent whose seriously ill child goes untreated because the family has no money to bribe the doctors. A score reads a whole public sector through those perceptions rather than counting cases.

How are the most corrupt countries measured?

The CPI combines 13 independent sources, among them the World Bank, the World Economic Forum, private risk and consulting companies and think tanks. The scores reflect the views of experts and businesspeople, not the public (TI's regional releases, 10 February 2026). Each source is rescaled against a 2012 reference year, so scores since 2012 can be compared year to year, while older ones cannot (CPI 2025 report, endnote 7).

Every score carries a margin. TI's results file gives each country a standard error and a count of sources. South Sudan's 9 rests on five sources with a standard error of 2.56, so the one point rise from 8 that created the tie with Somalia sits well inside that margin. Ties are common at the bottom, which is why this list has 11 countries.

TI names its blind spots itself. The index covers domestic public sector corruption, and the report points to what lies beside it: the private sector's part in large scale bribery and money laundering, and corruption that crosses borders. The CPI page adds that countries with the cleanest public sectors can still enable corruption elsewhere by moving its proceeds across borders into laundering schemes. Scam operations are a different measure again, covered in which country has the most scammers.

If you need to know about one official or one company, the country score cannot tell you. That check runs on the name.

Which other measures exist, and what is Global Financial Integrity?

Global Financial Integrity (GFI) is a think tank based in Washington, DC, founded by Raymond Baker in 2006, that works on illicit financial flows, corruption, illicit trade and money laundering (GFI). Its work addresses the harm done by trade misinvoicing, tax evasion and kleptocracy. GFI studies how illegal money moves, which is a different question from how corrupt a public sector is perceived to be.

The World Bank's Worldwide Governance Indicators include Control of Corruption as one of six dimensions. They draw on 35 cross country sources, including household and firm surveys and expert assessments, for more than 200 economies, and the 2026 edition is out.

The Basel AML Index scores money laundering risk from 17 indicators in five domains. The CPI is one of those indicators, at a 5 percent weight.

What are the top 10 most corrupt countries in 2026?

The most corrupt countries in 2026 are the lowest scorers in CPI 2025: South Sudan and Somalia at 9, Venezuela at 10, and Eritrea, Libya and Yemen at 13. A three way tie at rank 172 turns the bottom 10 into 11 countries. Every score below was checked against TI's results file on 20 October 2026.

Table 1. The most corrupt countries in the world, CPI 2025. Source: Transparency International, Corruption Perceptions Index 2025 and its results file, published 10 February 2026. Scale 0 (highly corrupt) to 100 (very clean); 182 countries and territories.

South Sudan: CPI 9

South Sudan rose one point from 8 and now shares last place. TI's 2025 report says corruption there worsened during the civil war of the 2010s, when leaders routinely used state funds to buy militia loyalty and to enrich themselves. Financial reforms promised under a 2018 peace deal never came, and officials have kept diverting resources through off budget schemes and politically connected contracts (CPI 2025 report, p. 13).

Somalia: CPI 9

Somalia's score did not move from CPI 2024, and the long view is just as flat: it has not scored above 13 in any year since 2012 (results file). TI describes the countries below 25 as mostly affected by conflict and highly repressive, and names Somalia and South Sudan as the lowest scorers (CPI 2025 report, p. 11).

Is Venezuela corrupt? CPI 10

On TI's measure, Venezuela has the lowest score in the Americas and the third lowest in the world. TI's findings count it among the full autocracies where corruption "is systemic and manifests at every level". Its report adds that the state oil company PDVSA lost over $10 billion to a currency exchange scheme and a crypto scheme (p. 13). The sanctions against Venezuela are a separate record.

Eritrea: CPI 13

Eritrea's 13 is unchanged, and TI lists it among Sub Saharan Africa's lowest scorers (TI Africa release). Treat the number as a wide estimate: it rests on five sources with a standard error of 5.35, the widest of the 11 (results file).

Libya: CPI 13

Libya held at 13. TI's Middle East and North Africa release places it with Syria and Yemen in "a state of uncertainty related to recent or ongoing conflicts", where political rivalries, a shortage of staff and infrastructure, and internal tensions keep good governance off the list of priorities.

Yemen: CPI 13

Yemen shares Libya's score and TI's conflict explanation. It scored 23 in 2012 and has lost 10 points since, a fall TI classes as significant; in the bottom group only Nicaragua and Syria show a larger significant fall (results file).

Nicaragua: CPI 14

Nicaragua has fallen further than any country in the bottom group, from 29 in 2012 to 14 (results file). TI names Venezuela, Nicaragua and Haiti as the Americas' three lowest scorers, marked by high levels of repression, failed or coopted institutions, and entrenched corruption (TI Americas release).

Sudan: CPI 14

Sudan is the only country in the bottom 11 whose score fell in CPI 2025, from 15 to 14 (results file). TI lists it with Eritrea, Somalia and South Sudan among the lowest scorers in Sub Saharan Africa, the weakest region on the index with an average of 32.

Equatorial Guinea: CPI 15

Equatorial Guinea rose from 13 to 15. In 2014 the Justice Department said that Second Vice President Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue received an official salary of less than $100,000 yet, according to court documents, used his position to amass more than $300 million worth of assets through corruption and money laundering (DOJ, 10 October 2014).

North Korea: CPI 15

North Korea ties with Equatorial Guinea and Syria at rank 172, so it belongs in any CPI 2025 bottom 10. TI's Asia Pacific release cites restricted civic space, opaque political finance and the lack of checks and balances and an independent judiciary. Its score rests on four sources, the fewest in the bottom group (results file).

Syria: CPI 15

Syria gained three points, from 12 to 15, the largest rise in the bottom group. The longer trend points the other way. TI lists Syria with Venezuela, Hungary and South Sudan as sustained decliners since 2012, and the results file shows a fall of 11 points from 26.

Top 10 most corrupt countries in 2026: summary table

Table 2. Root causes and consequences, as named by each source. Scores from the TI results file; causes and consequences from the sources linked in each country section above and in the next sections.

A low CPI score is not a sanctions listing. Sanctions programs by country feed the sanctions intensity score of the AML Country Risk Index.

What are the top 20 most corrupt countries?

Nine more countries complete the CPI 2025 bottom 20. Afghanistan, Haiti and Myanmar score 16 (rank 169), Burundi and Turkmenistan 17 (rank 167), Tajikistan 19 (rank 166), and Cambodia, Comoros and the Democratic Republic of the Congo 20 (rank 163). Myanmar has lost 14 points since 2017 (results file).

What is the most corrupt country in Africa and in each region?

South Sudan and Somalia, both at 9, are the most corrupt countries in Africa and in the world. Sub Saharan Africa is the lowest scoring region, with four of its 49 countries above 50 (TI Africa release). Europe's lowest scorers are Hungary and Bulgaria at 40, and the Western Europe and EU average has fallen from 66 to 64 as progress stalled over the past decade (TI Europe release).

Table 4. CPI 2025 by region. Source: TI results file (regional averages) and the five TI regional releases of 10 February 2026.

What is the least corrupt country?

Denmark, at 89, tops the index for the eighth time in a row. Finland (88) and Singapore (84) follow, then New Zealand and Norway (81), Sweden and Switzerland (80), Luxembourg and the Netherlands (78), and Germany and Iceland (77). Only five countries score above 80, down from 12 a decade ago (TI findings).

Which leaders of these countries face charges or sanctions?

On 22 July 2021 the UK sanctioned Teodoro Obiang Mangue, Vice President of Equatorial Guinea, for his involvement in the misappropriation of state funds into his own bank accounts, corrupt contracting arrangements and soliciting bribes. The FCDO said this funded a lifestyle that included a $100 million mansion in Paris (FCDO). Each row of the table below has the same parts: the authority, the date and what that authority said.

No authority publishes a ranking of the most corrupt leaders, and the CPI scores countries, not people. The table lists the records that exist for leaders of the bottom 11. In the Justice Department's words, "An indictment is merely an allegation and all defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law."

Table 3. Leaders of CPI 2025 bottom 11 countries on the public record. Only the authority pages linked; no office or outcome beyond what those pages say.

Leaders like these are politically exposed persons, and checking them, their families and their close associates is the job of PEP screening.

Why do these countries struggle with corruption?

Conflict and repression come first. TI describes most countries below 25 that way, and for Syria, Libya and Yemen it ties weak anti corruption effort to recent or ongoing conflict.

The political system matters as much. TI's sustained decliners since 2012 show the mechanism: democratic backsliding, weaker institutions and entrenched patronage networks (CPI 2025 report, p. 13). TI's results file groups 166 countries by the Economist Intelligence Unit's regime type, and the averages fall with each step: full democracies 71, flawed democracies 47, hybrid regimes 36 and authoritarian regimes 29.

Civic space counts too. Of the 50 countries whose scores fell significantly since 2012, 36 also restricted freedom of expression, association or assembly (TI findings). Journalists pay for it: of the 150 killed while covering corruption in non conflict zones since 2012, over 90 percent died in countries scoring below 50 (CPI 2025 report, p. 20).

In fragile states these pressures stack up. TI's Asia Pacific release places Afghanistan, Myanmar and North Korea at the bottom of the index, with restricted civic space, opaque political finance and no independent judiciary to check power. Once corruption is built into political and administrative systems, TI says, declines are "steep, persistent and hard to reverse" (CPI 2025 report, p. 13).

What are the global consequences of high corruption?

In South Sudan, a UN commission found that government oil inflows exceeded $25.2 billion since 2011, yet hardly any money reaches essential services. Its Oil for Roads example funneled an estimated $2.2 billion off budget into political patronage networks. From July 2020 to June 2024 the Ministry of Health received 19 percent of its allocation, while the Ministry of Presidential Affairs overspent its own by 584 percent.

The money also leaves. TI says professional service providers often help corrupt officials launder or hide their wealth in financial centers in the countries that top the index. Alex Saab admitted organizing a system of bribes to win Venezuelan government contracts to import food and medicine, then using shell companies outside Venezuela to move the proceeds around the world, including to the United States (DOJ, 15 September 2026). The second step is money laundering, and the Justice Department's Criminal Division said Saab "exploited the U.S. financial system".

For business, TI warns, companies may look elsewhere to invest, costing countries economic opportunities and jobs.

Where the CPI fits in a customer risk score

If you score customers at a bank, the CPI is one input to the geography factor. Count it once: the Basel AML Index already carries the CPI at a 5 percent weight, so a model that adds both counts the CPI twice. A customer risk assessment that returns each factor, its weight and its source shows an examiner or auditor what drove a rating.

The low score raises the question, and checks on the customer answer it: the local rules in KYC requirements by country, then adverse media screening on the customer.

How can countries address systemic corruption?

TI closes CPI 2025 with six calls to decision makers:

1. Independent, transparent and accessible justice. When justice is for sale, TI writes, written laws become meaningless.
2. Access to justice for people harmed by corruption. In most countries, individuals and communities have none in corruption cases.
3. Limits on undue influence over political decisions. Transparency and limits on political donations keep wealthy groups from bending policy.
4. Civic space and anti corruption reporting. Countries that protect free expression and assembly generally score better.
5. Transparency and oversight in public finance. Parliaments and auditors need to see how public money is spent.
6. Action on large scale corruption and illicit financial flows. States with working justice systems can prosecute wrongdoers and seize stolen assets hidden abroad.

Seychelles has gained 16 points since 2012 while prosecuting more corruption cases and strengthening its anti corruption agency (CPI 2025 report, p. 17), and Angola has climbed 17 points since 2015 (TI Africa release). The EU's first anti corruption directive followed as Directive (EU) 2026/1021 of 29 April 2026, though TI says key provisions were weakened.

The decision this leaves with a compliance team is narrow: use the CPI alone, or as one input beside FATF status and the Basel AML Index, counted once. Then name who refreshes it, because TI publishes a new index every year and CPI 2026 will replace every score on this page.