Panorama
The 2025 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), released today by Transparency International (TI), reveals that Rwanda has made progress in anti-corruption, achieving its highest-ever score of 58%, an increase from 57% in 2024. With this milestone, Rwanda remains third in Sub-Saharan Africa, maintains its top position in East Africa, and climbs to 41st place globally, improving from 43rd in 2024.
In Africa, Rwanda and Botswana are joint third with a score of 58%, following Seychelles (first with 68%, down from 72% in 2024) and Cabo Verde (second with 62%).
Within East Africa, Rwanda leads the rankings, followed by Tanzania (84th with 40%), Kenya (130th with 30%), Uganda (148th with 25%), Democratic Republic of the Congo (163rd with 20%), and Burundi (167th with 17%).
Rwanda’s CPI 2025 score of 58% marks the country’s first four-year consecutive upward trend in the index (51% in 2022, 53% in 2023, 57% in 2024, and 58% in 2025) and represents its highest score and rank ever. Previously, Rwanda’s best performances were 54% in three editions (2015, 2016 and 2020), 56% in 2018, and 57% in 2024. Rwanda’s best global rankings prior to 2025 were 43rd in 2015 and 2024, and 48th in 2017 and 2018.
“Rwanda’s steady rise in the CPI over four consecutive years sends a powerful signal that sustained reforms, political commitment and institutional discipline can deliver real results. However, reaching its highest score ever is not a moment for complacency, but a call to consolidate integrity systems, close remaining gaps, and ensure that progress is felt by citizens in their daily interactions with public services,” Apollinaire Mupiganyi, TI-Rwanda Executive Director and TI Board member, noted.
Rwanda’s CPI 2025 score draws from seven sources, including (a) World Economic Forum Executive Opinion Survey (EOS) (73% – up from 69% in 2024). (b) African Development Bank CPIA (69%), (c) World Justice Project Rule of Law Index (60 – up from 59% in 2024), (c) Global Insights Country Risk Ratings (59%), (d) World Bank CPIA (51%), (e) Bertelsmann Foundation Transformation Index (47%), and (f) Varieties of Democracy Project (46% – up from 45% in 2024).
According to the CPI 2025, Corruption remains a serious problem in Sub-Saharan Africa. With an average score of 32% and only four out of the 49 countries scoring above 50, Sub Saharan Africa is the lowest performing region on the global index of 182 countries. Ten of the 49 countries in the region have significantly worsened since 2012 and only seven (including Rwanda) have improved in the same period, highlighting that current anti-corruption efforts are not yielding expected results.
Decline in leadership undermining global fight against corruption
Corruption is worsening globally, with even established democracies experiencing rising corruption amid a decline in leadership, according to CPI 2025. This annual index shows that the number of countries scoring above 80 has shrunk from 12 a decade ago to just five this year.
Transparency International’s data show that democracies, typically stronger on anti-corruption than autocracies or flawed democracies, are experiencing a worrying decline in performance. This trend spans countries such as the United States (64), Canada (75) and New Zealand (81), to various parts of Europe, like the United Kingdom (70), France (66) and Sweden (80). Another concerning pattern is increasing restrictions by many states on freedoms of expression, association and assembly. Since 2012, 36 of the 50 countries with significant declines in CPI scores have also experienced a reduction in civic space.
2025 saw a wave of anti-corruption protests led by Gen Z, mostly in countries in the bottom half of the CPI whose scores have largely stagnated or declined over the past decade. Young people in countries such as Nepal (34) and Madagascar (25) took to the streets to criticise leaders for abusing their power while failing to deliver decent public services and economic opportunity.
Transparency International is warning that the absence of bold leadership in the global fight against corruption is weakening international anti-corruption action, and risks reducing pressure for reform in countries throughout the world.
“Corruption is not inevitable. Our research and experience as a global movement fighting corruption show there is a clear blueprint for how to hold power to account for the common good, from democratic processes and independent oversight to a free and open civil society. At a time when we’re seeing a dangerous disregard for international norms from some states, we’re calling on governments and leaders to act with integrity and live up to their responsibilities to provide a better future for people around the world,” François Valérian, Chair of Transparency International.
Transparency International is calling for (a) Renewed political leadership on anti-corruption, including the full enforcement of laws, implementation of international commitments, and reforms that strengthen transparency, oversight and accountability. (b) Protection of civic space, by ending attacks on journalists, NGOs, and whistleblowers, and stopping efforts to restrict independent civil society work. (c) Close the secrecy loopholes that let corrupt money move across borders, including by reining in professional gatekeepers and ensuring transparency on who really owns companies, trusts and assets.
“At a time when corruption is rising globally and civic space is shrinking in many countries, Rwanda’s upward trajectory shows that progress is still possible when institutions are protected and accountability is taken seriously. But no country is immune. The global CPI 2025 reminds us that safeguarding democracy, transparency and citizen oversight is now one of the most urgent fronts in the fight against corruption worldwide,” Mupiganyi added.
The CPI ranks 182 countries and territories by their perceived levels of public sector corruption on a scale of zero (highly corrupt) to 100 (very clean). The global average score stands at 42 out of 100, its lowest level in more than a decade, pointing to a concerning downward trend that will need to be monitored over time. The vast majority of countries are failing to keep corruption under control more than two thirds – 122 out of 180 – score under 50.
For the eighth year in a row, Denmark obtains the highest score on the index (89) and is closely followed by Finland (88) and Singapore (84). Countries with the lowest scores overwhelmingly have severely repressed civil societies and high levels instability like South Sudan (9), Somalia (9) and Venezuela (10).
Since 2012, 50 countries have seen their scores significantly decline in the index : those which dropped the most include Türkiye (31), Hungary (40) and Nicaragua (14). They reflect a decade-long, structural weakening of integrity mechanisms, fuelled by democratic backsliding, conflict, institutional fragility, and entrenched patronage networks. These declines are sharp, enduring, and difficult to reverse, as corruption becomes systemic and deeply embedded in both political and administrative structures.
Since 2012, 31 countries have significantly improved their scores on the index: among the biggest improvers were Estonia (76), South Korea (63) and Seychelles (68). The long-term improvements in democratic countries like these reflect sustained momentum with reforms, strengthened oversight institutions and broad political consensus in favour of clean governance. Success in these areas has been attributed to among other things, digitising public services, professionalising the civil service, and embedding regional and global governance standards.
In the last decade, politicised interference with the operations of NGOs has scaled up in countries such as Georgia (50), Indonesia (34) and Peru (30) where governments introduced new laws to limit access to funding, or even weaken organisations that scrutinise and criticise them. Such laws are often paired with smear campaigns and intimidation. In countries like Tunisia (39), civic space is shrinking through administrative, judicial and financial pressures that constrain NGOs, even without new restrictive laws. In these contexts, it is harder for independent journalists, civil society organisations and whistleblowers to speak out against corruption and more likely that corrupt officials can continue misusing their power. Transparency International chapters in Russia (22) and Venezuela (10) have been forced into exile due to repression of civil society.
Such restrictive environments not only silence critics and watchdogs but also create real dangers for those who dare to expose wrongdoing. Since 2012, 150 journalists covering corruption-related stories in non-conflict zones have been murdered – nearly all of these in countries with high corruption levels.
