France, Sweden and UK worsen in annual global corruption index

By Owen Carpenter-Zehe, The EUobserver, 10 February 2026

BRUSSELS - Global corruption is worse than it was a decade ago, with democracies particularly slipping, according to the new 2025 Corruption Perceptions Index published on Tuesday (10 February) by the Berlin-based NGO Transparency International.

Governmental corruption has increasingly been a concern across the globe, as countries seemingly fail to enforce, or even reduce, their anti- corruption measures.

Anti-corruption protests have been seen worldwide in the past few years, including movements in Nepal, Madagascar, Slovakia, and Serbia.

All in all, the well-respected annual report found that global corruption is getting worse.

The Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) scores public-sector corruption in every country on a scale of 0 to 100, with lower corruption corresponding to a higher score.

The highest scoring nations were Denmark (89), Finland (88), and Singapore (84), while the lowest were South Sudan (9), Somalia (9), and Venezuela (10).

The 2025 index rates the global average at 42 out of 100, with that score dropping for the first time in more than a decade.

And there are now only five nations with a score above 80, compared to 12 a decade ago, and 50 countries in total declined.

“At a time of climate crisis, instability and polarisation, the world needs accountable leaders and independent institutions to protect the public interest more than ever — yet, too often, they are falling short,” said Maíra Martini, CEO of Transparency International, in the report.

While full democracies scored the best among all forms of government, the reports point to what they called a “worrying trend of democracies seeing worsening perceived corruption.”

The United States (64), France (66), the United Kingdom (70), Sweden (80) are among the democracies whose scores have notably fallen due to weakened checks and balances.

Western Europe, and the EU, is the region with the highest average score (64) compared to every other region of the world; however, since 2012, Europe has the most states whose scores decreased, at 13, while only seven nations’ scores improved in the region.

Hungary (40) and Slovakia (48) are European nations that have weakened anti-corruption protections.

Only 31 countries improved their score.

To help counter the global trend, Transparency International calls for strong anti-corruption political leadership, transparent, accessible, independent justice systems, stronger civil society checks, such as journalism and NGOs, and enhanced financial transparency across political and monetary systems.