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Corruption Perceptions Index — Western Democracies

How does the United States compare to other Western developed democracies on perceived public-sector corruption? This interactive bar chart ranks 30 OECD-style democracies by their score on Transparency International's 2025 Corruption Perceptions Index.

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How to Read This Chart

  • Score (x-axis): 0 = highly corrupt, 100 = very clean. Scores below 50 indicate serious public-sector corruption.
  • Country (y-axis): 30 Western/OECD democracies, sorted from highest score (least corrupt) at top to lowest at bottom.
  • Red bar: The United States is highlighted to show its position among peer democracies.
  • Hover: Tooltip shows the exact score and the country's global rank out of 182.

Key Findings

Observation Detail
Top performers Denmark (89), Finland (88) lead the world; Nordic + Western European cluster dominates the top 10
U.S. position Rank #29 globally, score 64 — the lowest U.S. ranking on record
U.S. peer group Sits with South Korea (63), Israel (62), and Latvia (60) — well below all of Western/Northern Europe, Canada, Australia, and the UK
Southern Europe Spain (55), Italy (53), Poland (52) cluster in the 50s — meaningfully below the US but above the global median of ~43

The U.S. score of 64 reflects a multi-year decline from 76 in 2015. Causes cited by Transparency International include erosion of campaign-finance limits, weakening oversight institutions, and partisan capture of regulatory agencies.

Source

Data from: Transparency International — Corruption Perceptions Index 2025 https://www.transparency.org/en/cpi/2025

The CPI aggregates 13 expert and business-survey data sources to score 182 countries on perceived public-sector corruption.

Lesson Plan

Learning Objectives

Students will be able to: 1. Interpret the Corruption Perceptions Index scoring scale (0–100). 2. Identify how the U.S. compares to other Western developed democracies. 3. Discuss possible causes and consequences of declining corruption-perception scores.

Discussion Questions

  1. Why might the United States score lower than Denmark or Canada?
  2. What does "perceived corruption" mean — and why does perception matter as much as actual corruption?
  3. How could a 1-point drop in CPI score translate into real-world consequences (foreign investment, civic trust, rule of law)?
  4. Are the Nordic countries doing something structurally different from the U.S.?
  5. What reforms could improve the U.S. score?

Classroom Activities

  • Predict-then-reveal: Before showing the chart, ask students where they think the US ranks. Then reveal.
  • Map exercise: Color a world map by CPI score and look for regional patterns.
  • Case study: Compare U.S. anti-corruption laws (FCPA, ethics regulations) to Denmark's.
  • Trend analysis: Look up the U.S. CPI score for the past 10 years — what changed?

References