World map showing corruption index 2024. (CPI)

South Sudan has been ranked the most corrupt among 180 countries in the world having scored the lowest index to beat Somalia to the infamous position, according to a global corruption index released on Tuesday.

The 2024 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) indicates that public sector corruption is a dangerous problem in every part of the world, but added that change for the better is happening in many countries.

Its research also reveals that corruption is a major threat to climate action, hindering progress in reducing emissions and adapting to the unavoidable effects of global heating.

CPI ranks 180 countries and territories worldwide from leading powers to the third world by their perceived levels of public sector corruption. The results are given on a scale of 0 (highly corrupt) to 100 (very clean).

South Sudan has ranked 180th – scoring the lowest points (8) in Sub-Saharan Africa and the world, followed by Somalia (9), Eritrea and Equatorial Guinea (13).

The continent’s highest scorers include Seychelles with 72, Cape Verde 62, and Botswana and Rwanda both scoring 57 points.

In 2023, Transparency International ranked South Sudan as the second most corrupt country in the world along with Syria and Venezuela as Somalia toping the list.

Meanwhile, Denmark, Finland, Singapore, New Zealand, and Luxembourg emerged as the world’s least corrupt countries with scores of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 respectively.

The CPI said billions of people live in countries where corruption destroys lives and undermines human rights.

It indicates that while 32 countries have significantly reduced their corruption levels since 2012, there’s still a huge amount of work to be done – 148 countries have stayed stagnant or gotten worse during the same period.

– Climate change –