Corruption Perceptions Index 2025 | 16 Feb 2026

Why in News?

The Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) 2025, released by Transparency International, ranks 182 countries and territories on a scale from 0 (highly corrupt) to 100 (very clean) based on expert assessments and business perception surveys drawn from 13 independent data sources.  

Key Points 

• Rank: India ranked 91st out of 182 countries. 
• Score: India’s score was 39 out of 100, showing a marginal improvement from its score of 38 in the previous year.  
• Progress: While this allowed India to climb five spots from its 2024 rank of 96, it remains below the global average score of 43. 
  • India's Ranking Progress: India’s slight rise is attributed to the expansion of Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) and e-governance, which have reduced "middleman" corruption in welfare delivery. 
    • Concerns: The report noted that while low-level bribery in services has seen a dip, concerns remain regarding political financing and the protection of whistleblowers and journalists. 
• Regional Comparison: India performs better than Pakistan (136th) and Bangladesh (150th), but continues to lag behind Bhutan (18th) and China (75th). 
• Top Countries (Least Corrupt): Denmark (1st) continues to lead the world as the least corrupt country with a score of 89, followed closely by Finland in second place.  
  • Singapore maintains its status as the highest-ranked Asian nation in third, while New Zealand and Norway round out the top five, reflecting the consistent transparency of Nordic and Pacific governance models. 
• Bottom Countries (Most Corrupt): The bottom five countries are those struggling with prolonged civil unrest, state failure, or autocratic regimes.  
• Somalia and South Sudan are tied at the absolute bottom of the index with the lowest score of 9.  
  • They are preceded by Venezuela, which continues to face systemic institutional collapse, and Yemen and Libya, both of whose scores reflect the devastating impact of long-term conflict on public accountability and the rule of law. 
• Global Findings: The global average score declined to 42, the lowest in over a decade, signaling that perceived corruption is worsening worldwide. 
  • 122 out of 182 countries scored below 50, indicating that most nations are struggling to keep public-sector corruption under control.