February 21, 2025
I ran has been scored as more corrupt than ever before, according to the annual rankings produced by the Berlin based Transparency International.
According to Transparency International’s 2024 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) released February 11, Iran fell by one point from the previous year, scoring 23 out of a possible 100, where zero means highly corrupt and 100 means very clean. The 23 was the lowest score ever given Iran. The Islamic Republic was ranked 151st among the 180 countries rated by TI. TI said the picture worldwide was rather bleak.
It said more than two-thirds of countries scored below 50; those countries contain 85 percent of the world’s population. The global average this year remained unchanged at 43. The CPI, the most widely used global corruption ranking in the world, assesses countries and territories annually on how corrupt their public sector is perceived to be by experts.
It is a subjective ranking, since there is no objective way to measure corruption. That is why its index is called Corruption Perceptions. Each country’s score is drawn from 13 different corruption surveys and assessments by a variety of institutions including the World Bank and the World Economic Forum.
Transparency International reported that 47 countries recorded their lowest scores that is, were more corrupt since the current ranking system was introduced in 2012. Iran’s score of 23 was worse than Iraq’s at 26 but better than Lebanon’s and Russia’s, both at 22. South Sudan, ranked last, Somalia, Venezuela and Syria rated the worst scores in 2024.
The Syria score was for the nowoverthrown Assad regime. Over a quarter of the countries in the sample (47) got their lowest score yet on the index. In addition to Iran, those countries included Switzerland (with a score of 81), Germany (75), the United States (65) Russia (22) and Venezuela (10).
The top eight cleanest countries in the world this year were: Denmark (90), Finland (88), Singapore (84), New Zealand (83), Luxembourg (81), Norway (81), Switzerland (81) and Sweden (80). As in so many of these global rankings, Scandinavia comes out looking best.
Transparency International said the “state of anti-corruption efforts in the Middle East and North Africa region remains bleak,” attributing the stagnation to the near-absolute control of political leaders. The global watchdog added that countries experiencing conflict, severe restrictions on freedoms, and weak democratic institutions, rank lowest on the index.
The watchdog said leaders in the region benefit from wealth directed toward themselves while suppressing dissent to maintain power. Their authority, it added, has also stalled progress on global issues such as combating climate change and advancing gender equity.