Barbados was ranked as the least corrupt country in the Caribbean by the Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) for 2022. Jamaica ranked eighth in the Caribbean and 69th in the world on the CPI. Its ranking remained unchanged from 2021. The Dominican Republic and Guyana in the Caribbean were the countries that improved their ranking on the CPI for 2022.

The CPI determines a ranking of 180 nations and territories around the world according to perceived levels of corruption in the public sector. The ranking is scored on a scale of zero to 100, with a zero score meaning “highly corrupt” to a score of 100, which means “very clean.” Overall, the global average figure representing the global average of corruption has remained essentially the same – 43 out of 100 – for more than ten years.

Over two-thirds of the countries ranked score under 50, and in spite of real efforts and some gains by some nations in addressing corruption, no significant progress was made against corruption in 155 countries since 2012; conditions have actually gotten worse since 2012.

The ranking of Caribbean states on the CPI for 2022 was as follows: 1 Barbados; 2 The Bahamas; 3 St Vincent and the Grenadines; 4 Dominica; 5 St Lucia; 6 Grenada; 7 Cuba; 8 Jamaica; 9 Trinidad and Tobago; 10 Guyana; 11 Suriname; 12 The Dominican Republic; and 13 Haiti. St. Kitts and Nevis, Antigua and Barbuda, and Belize were not included on the list.

The least corrupt state in the world as determined by the CPI was Denmark with a score of 90, followed by Finland and New Zealand, which both had a score of 87. The United States ranked 24th on the list of 180 countries, while the United Kingdom was ranked 18th. Somalia was ranked as the most corrupt country on the CPI in 2022, and its ranked position had fallen since 2021.

The overall conclusion drawn by the CPI results is that most countries in the world have failed to eliminate public sector corruption.

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