Indicator 16.50 Corruption Perceptions Index

The indicator is a composite index based on a combination of surveys and assessments of corruption from 13 different sources, and scores and ranks countries based on how corrupt a country’s public sector is perceived to be, with a score of 0 representing a very high level of corruption and a score of 100 representing a very clean country. The CPI includes only sources that provide a score for a set of countries/territories and that measure perceptions of corruption in the public sector. For a country/territory to be included in the ranking, it must be included in a minimum of three of the CPI’s data sources. The CPI is published by Transparency International.

Indicator is used to monitor progress towards SDG 16 on peace, justice and strong institutions, which is embedded in the European Commission’s Priorities under ‘A new era for European Defence and Security’ and ‘Protecting our democracy, upholding our values’. The indicator can be considered as similar to global SDG indicator 16.5.2 “Proportion of businesses that had at least one contact with a public official and that paid a bribe to a public official, or were asked for a bribe by those public officials, during the previous 12 months”.

Corruption inflicts financial damage by lowering investment levels, hampering the fair operation of the internal market and reducing public finances. It also causes social harm as organised crime groups use corruption to commit other serious crimes, such as trafficking in drugs and human beings. As there is no meaningful way to assess absolute levels of corruption in countries or territories on the basis of hard empirical data, capturing perceptions of corruption of those in a position to offer assessments of public sector corruption is so far the most reliable method of comparing relative corruption levels across countries.

The long-term objective for this indicator is a value of 88.