Corruption Perceptions Index:

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI)?
The CPI scores and ranks countries/territories based on how corrupt a country’s
public sector is perceived to be by experts and business executives. It is a composite
index, a combination of at least 3 and up to 13 surveys and assessments of
corruption, collected by a variety of reputable institutions. The CPI is the most widely
used indicator of corruption worldwide.

Which data sources are used for the CPI?

The CPI draws on 13 data sources from 12 independent institutions specialising in
governance and business climate analysis. The sources of information used for the
CPI are based on data published in the previous two years. The CPI includes only
sources that provide a score for a set of countries/territories and that measure expert
perceptions of corruption in the public sector. For a full list of the data sources, the
type of respondents and the specific questions asked, please see the CPI source
description document.

Why do we need the CPI if there are 13 other sources that measure
manifestations of corruption in the public sector?
There are four properties which make the CPI a valuable governance indicator:

1. The CPI has a global geographical coverage. Giving the possibility of

comparisons that are not feasible with the sources viewed separately.
2. The CPI is more reliable than each source taken separately because it
compensates for eventual errors among sources by taking the average of at
least three different sources and potentially as many as 13.
3. The CPI, with its 0-100 scale, can differentiate between perceived levels of
corruption with more granularity than sources which, for example, have scales
of 1-7 or 1-10 where each country is assigned a full number.
4. Since the underlying CPI sources assess different dimensions and
manifestations of public sector corruption, the CPI manages to reconcile
different aspects of corruption into one indicator.

Why is the CPI based on perceptions?

Corruption generally comprises illegal activities, which are deliberately hidden and
only come to light through scandals, investigations or prosecutions. Whilst
researchers from academia, civil society and governments have made advances in
terms of measuring specific manifestations of corruption with non-perception data,
there are no indicators which measures objective national levels of corruption
directly and exhaustively.

The sources and surveys which make up the CPI, ask their respondents questions
which are based on carefully designed and calibrated questionnaires. (For a list of
all sources and the questions that they ask, please see here.) The CPI contains
informed views of relevant stakeholders, which generally correlate highly with
objective indicators, such as citizen experiences with bribery as captured by the
Global Corruption Barometer.
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Which countries/territories are included in the CPI and why?
For a country/territory to be included in the ranking, it must be rated by a minimum of
three of the CPI’s data sources. If a country is not featured in the ranking, then this is
solely because of insufficient survey information and not an indication that corruption
does not exist in the country. Since 2012, the CPI has covered around 180 countries
across the globe.

Can CPI country scores comparable even if they are calculated with different
sources?
Yes, all the 13 sources used for the CPI have a high correlation amongst themselves.
This means that despite measuring slightly different manifestations of corruption, they
all capture the same underlying phenomenon. Furthermore, according to the statistical
review conducted by the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre, neither the
the number of sources nor the specific composition of sources meaningfully affects the
CPI score.

What is the difference between a country/territory’s rank and its score?

A country/territory’s score indicates the perceived level of public sector corruption on
a scale of 0-100, where 0 means that a country is perceived as highly corrupt and a
100 means that a country is perceived as very clean. A country's rank indicates its
position relative to the other countries/territories included in the index. Ranks can
change merely if the number of countries included in the index changes or if other
countries improve or decline on the index.

Which manifestations of corruption does the CPI capture?

CPI source data captures the following aspects of corruption, based on the specific
question wording used to collect the data:
• Bribery
• Diversion of public funds
• Prevalence of officials using public office for private gain without facing
consequences
• Ability of governments to contain corruption and enforce effective integrity
mechanisms in the public sector
• Red tape and excessive bureaucratic burden which may increase
opportunities for corruption
• Meritocratic versus nepotistic appointments in the civil service
• Effective criminal prosecution for corrupt officials
• Adequate laws on financial disclosure and conflict of interest prevention for
public officials
• Legal protection for whistleblowers, journalists, investigators when they are
reporting cases of bribery and corruption
• State capture by narrow vested interests
• Access of civil society to information on public affairs
For a full list of the questions used by the CPI sources, please see our source
description document here.

Which manifestations of corruption does the CPI not capture?

CPI source data does not capture the following aspects of corruption:
• Citizens’ perceptions or experience of corruption
• Tax fraud
• Illicit financial flows
• Enablers of corruption (lawyers, accountants, financial advisors etc)
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 • Money-laundering
• Private sector corruption
• Informal economies and markets

Why do some authoritarian regimes and countries with deteriorating levels of

democracy and shrinking civic space perform well on the CPI?
There is a strong body of evidence linking strong and sustainable control of
corruption to the existence of strong, democratic institutions, a free media and an
open civic space. However, authoritarian states might also be able to control certain
types of corruption through top-down approaches.

Where anti-corruption strategies have been successful in authoritarian states, this

has tended to be the result of a strong leader using their personal authority to
disrupt corrupt networks and impose corruption control from above. These top-down
approaches often involve power centralisation, deregulation, and modernisation
initiatives such as digitalization of public services, combined with strong sanctions
and exemplary punishments such as mass dismissals or arrests, and even extra-
judicial measures or violence. Control of corruption in authoritarian states may thus
be shallower and less sustainable than in more democratic systems or come at the
cost of civil liberties. This is because where systemic checks and balances in the
form of transparent and accountable public institutions are absent, control of
corruption is largely dependent on the political will of incumbent leaders.

As such, while some authoritarian states may be perceived to be relatively

successful in terms of controlling corruption in public administration, the overall
quality of governance in these countries may remain poor.

Is the country/territory with the lowest score the world's most corrupt nation?
No. The CPI is an indicator of perceptions of public sector corruption, i.e.
administrative and political corruption. It is not a verdict on the levels of corruption of
entire nations or societies, or of their policies, or the activities of their private sector.
Citizens of those countries/territories that score at the lower end of the CPI often
show the same concern about and condemnation of corruption as the public in
countries that perform strongly.Further, the country/territory with the lowest score is
the one where public sector corruption is perceived to be greatest among those
included in the list. The CPI provides no information about countries/territories
which are not included in the index.

Can the latest country scores be compared with the previous year?
Yes. As part of the update to the methodology used to calculate the CPI in 2012 we
established the new scale of 0-100. Each country score given by the underlying data
sources is normalized into standard normal distribution scores and then rescaled
using the global mean and standard deviation from the CPI 2012 as the year of
reference. Using this scale, we can compare CPI scores from one year to the next
since 2012. Because of the update in the methodology, however, CPI scores before
2012 are not comparable over time.

For a more detailed description of the change in methodology in 2012, please see
Corruption Perceptions Index – An updated Methodology for 2012.

Where can I find the full tables of results in a time series format?
You can find this on our website here.

I want to reproduce CPI results for my own publication – do I need to ask

permission?

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No. Unless otherwise noted, Transparency International’s content is covered by a
Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 4.0 licence. This means you are free to use
our work without contacting us as long as you comply with the terms in the licence.
You comply with the terms of the licence if you credit and link to our material as
follows:

CONTENT TITLE (YEAR) by Transparency International is licensed under CC-BY-

ND 4.0

Please link to the TI content under the above mentioned CONTENT TITLE (YEAR).

The attribute “NoDerivs” means that it is not permitted to remix or change the content
under the mentioned licence.

Can I compare results from before 2012?

No, due to a change in our methodology in 2012, results from before that year cannot
be compared. Only CPI results from 2012 onwards can be compared.

Can you compare countries when they are rated by different sources?
Yes, all sources that compose the CPI measure the same construct (percieved level
of corruption in the public sector) through some of its different dimensions like
bribery and effective prosecution of corrupt officials, for example. Through our
rescaling process, all our sources are brought closer to the global mean and
standard deviation with the baseline of 2012, to allow for cross time comparison. For
a full explanation of our rescaling process, please see our technical methodology
note.

My country has changed CPI score by one or two points? Does that mean
corruption has increased/decreased?
The CPI is a composite indicator, with at least three sources used per country for
calculating the CPI score. For some countries the sources give very similar ratings
while for other countries the sources give a wider range of ratings. We report this
difference using the standard error and upper and lower bounds for the confidence
intervals. Countries which are given similar ratings by the sources will have a smaller
standard error, while countries with a range of source scores will have a larger
standard error. It is unlikely that a one or two point CPI score change would be
statistically significant. Statistically significant changes are reported in our excel
tables of results. Please see the full data set on the Transparency International
website.

Does the CPI tell the full story of corruption in a country?

No. The CPI is limited in scope, capturing perceptions of the extent of corruption in
the public sector, from the perspective of business people and country experts.
Complementing this viewpoint and capturing different aspects of corruption,
Transparency International produces a range of both qualitative and quantitative
research on corruption, both at the global level and at the national level through
Transparency International’s network of national chapters based in over 100
countries around the world.

Have there been any independent checks on the validity of the CPI
methodology?
In 2017, the European Commission Joint Research Centre undertook an
independent audit of the CPI and its methodology. The same audit was conducted
in 2012 following the introduction of a new methodology for the CPI calculation.
Both audits found that the CPI is conceptually and statistically coherent and has a
balanced structure. The full report and recommendations can be found here.
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How are statistically significant changes calculated?
Since 2018, Transparency International uses a revised approach to calculate
standard errors and effect sizes, based on advice from the European Commission
Joint Research Centre. Statistically significant movers are calculated using the
effect size, the standard deviation, and the number of sources used for each
country. Changes in CPI scores are considered statistically significant using a 90%
confidence interval.

Differences can be calculated on pairs of countries and also on the scores of a

same country for two given years. It is common to observe more significant
changes when seen through time, which is why comparisons since 2012 can be
useful. A full explanation, including all formulas, can be found in the technical
methodology note here.