68% of countries worldwide have a serious corruption problem. Half of the G20 are among them and not one single country, anywhere in the world, is corruption-free. These are some of the main results emerging from the Corruption Perception Index (CPI) 2015, released last month by Transparency International.

Launched in 1995, the CPI measures the perceived levels of public sector corruption worldwide, basing on expert opinion. In these years, many countries improved their score, while others deteriorated.  As in 2014, Northern Europe remains home to four of the top five countries in 2015 (Denmark, Finland, Sweden, New Zealand and the Netherlands).  The collapse of Brazil, strongly penalized by Petrobras scandal, particularly stands out. At the bottom of the index, the situation remains unchanged, with Somalia and North Korea confirmed as the two most corrupt countries. The most corrupt countries, in half of the cases (5 out of 10), also rank among the 10 least peaceful places in the world.

«The 2015 Corruption Perceptions Index clearly shows that corruption remains a blight around the world – said José Ugaz, Chair of Transparency International – but 2015 was also a year when people again took to the streets to protest corruption. People across the globe sent a strong signal to those in power: it is time to tackle grand corruption».