The Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) scores (figure 1) and ranks countries/territories based on how corrupt a country’s public sector is perceived to be. It is a composite index, a combination of surveys and assessments of corruption, collected by a variety of reputable institutions. The CPI is the most widely used indicator of corruption worldwide.

Corruption generally comprises illegal activities, which are deliberately hidden and only come to light through scandals, investigations or prosecutions. There is no meaningful way to assess absolute levels of corruption in countries or territories on the basis of hard empirical data. Possible attempts to do so, such as by comparing bribes reported, the number of prosecutions brought or studying court cases directly linked to corruption, cannot be taken as definitive indicators of corruption levels. Instead, they show how effective prosecutors, the courts or the media are in investigating and exposing corruption. Capturing perceptions of corruption of those in a position to offer assessments of public sector corruption is the most reliable method of comparing relative corruption levels across countries.

\label{fig:figs}Fig.1: Histogram (top), boxplot (middle) and probability density function (bottom) displaying distribution of Global CPI Score for 2016 with median (black dashed line) and mean (purple dashed line)

Fig.1: Histogram (top), boxplot (middle) and probability density function (bottom) displaying distribution of Global CPI Score for 2016 with median (black dashed line) and mean (purple dashed line)

Data available from:Kaggle