Afghanistan remains among the world’s most corrupt countries, according to Transparency International’s annual Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), which shows the country’s ranking worsening slightly in 2025 under Taliban rule.
The report shows Afghanistan scored 16 out of 100, ranking 169th out of 182 countries. In 2024, the country scored 17 points, placing 165th out of 180 countries.
Transparency International measures perceived public-sector corruption on a scale from zero to 100, with zero representing the highest level of corruption and 100 indicating countries considered free of corruption.
Denmark, Finland, Singapore, New Zealand and Norway ranked as the least corrupt countries in the latest index. South Sudan, Somalia, Venezuela, Yemen and Libya were listed among the most corrupt.
Afghanistan’s score has declined over recent years. The country scored 20 points in 2023, ranking 162nd, and 24 points in 2022, ranking 150th.
For the first time in more than a decade, the global average CPI score fell to 42 out of 100, reflecting what Transparency International described as a broader decline in anti-corruption performance worldwide.
According to the report, 122 of 182 countries scored below 50, indicating widespread corruption in the public sector. Only five countries scored above 80, down from 12 countries a decade ago.
Transparency International said the decline in scores, including in some high-performing democracies, shows that corruption risks can increase even where institutions once appeared stable.
The report said countries that restrict civic space often struggle to control corruption. Among the 50 countries with the steepest CPI declines, 36 have imposed restrictions on civil liberties. It also noted that more than 90 precent of journalists killed while investigating corruption were in countries with low CPI scores.
Fragile states such as Afghanistan, under Taliban administration, remain near the bottom of the index. Transparency International said limited civic space, opaque political-financing systems, weak checks and balances, and the absence of independent judicial institutions leave such countries particularly vulnerable to corruption.
The organisation also highlighted declining corruption-perception scores in several democracies, including the United States (64), Canada (75), the United Kingdom (70), France (66), Sweden (80) and New Zealand (81).
Countries with strong democratic institutions generally perform better in the index, while authoritarian systems tend to rank among the worst performers. In countries such as Venezuela (10) and Azerbaijan (30), the report said corruption is structural and embedded across multiple levels of governance.
Transparency International called on governments worldwide to strengthen independent judicial systems and oversight institutions, improve transparency in political financing, protect media freedom and take stronger action against cross-border flows of illicit money.
