KABUL (TCA) — Transparency International’s annual Corruption Perceptions Index ranks Afghanistan as the 4th most corrupt country among 180 nations in the world, with only Syria, South Sudan and Somalia having even higher corruption levels, TOLOnews reported.
The index also highlights that the majority of countries are making little or no progress in ending corruption, “while further analysis shows journalists and activists in corrupt countries risking their lives every day in an effort to speak out”.
The index, which ranks 180 countries and territories by their perceived levels of public sector corruption according to experts and businesspeople, uses a scale of 0 to 100, where 0 is highly corrupt and 100 is very clean.
This year, the index found that more than two-thirds of countries score below 50, with an average score of 43.
This year, New Zealand and Denmark rank highest with scores of 89 and 88 respectively.
Syria, South Sudan and Somalia rank lowest with scores of 14, 12 and 9 respectively.
Afghanistan has a score of only 15, while Yemen and Sudan have a score of 16 and Libya 17.
The best performing region is Western Europe with an average score of 66.
The worst performing regions are Sub-Saharan Africa (average score 32) and Eastern Europe and Central Asia (average score 34).
Since 2012, several countries significantly improved their index score, including Côte d’Ivoire, Senegal and the United Kingdom, while several countries declined, including Syria, Yemen and Australia.
