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Social media posts have circulated claiming that Sri Lanka’s 2025 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) score, as reported by the World Economic Forum, is 24.7—even under a government committed to fighting corruption. This article presents our fact-check of those claims.
Social Media Posts :
A social media post stated, “According to the latest report of the 2025 World Economic Corruption Index, we have a score of 24.7/100 (not Distinction, ‘D’ is the lowest rank.) (The value of 32/100% in 2024 has dropped to 24.7% this year). During the Rajapaksa era, which is said to be extremely corrupt, Sri Lanka was ranked 87th among the least corrupt countries in the world, and is currently ranked 121st.”
Below is another series of posts published regarding this.
These posts claim Sri Lanka’s score fell from 32% in the 2024 Global Corruption Report to 24.7% in 2025, suggesting the country is losing ground in the fight against corruption.
Various opinions were expressed regarding this, so we took steps to investigate it.
Explainer:
Transparency International -CPI
The Corruption Perception Index (CPI), a widely used global measure of public sector corruption, is published annually by Transparency International. According to experts and businesspeople, the report ranks 180 countries and territories on a scale of 0 to 100, with 0 indicating highly corrupt and 100 indicating very clean.
The last CPI report released by Transparency International is for the year 2024; a report for 2025 has not yet been published.
Transparency International released the CPI report for the year 2024 on February 11, 2025, and the latest CPI report released so far is listed on the Transparency International website as follows.
Accordingly, the latest published Corruption Perceptions Index values for 2024 show that Sri Lanka’s score has decreased by two indicators, from 34 to 32, compared to 2023.
This value is lower than the global average, and Sri Lanka ranks at 121 out of 180 states and territories considered for this calculation.
We also checked past CPI records and noticed that the CPI value has gradually decreased throughout the years. In 2021, the CPI value was 40; in 2020 it was 38. It has gradually decreased to 34 in 2023 and to 32 in 2024.
However, since we did not come across the CPI report for 2025, and the Transparency International CPI index does not use alphabetical rankings but only publishes numerical scores on a scale of 0-100, we conducted further fact-check on this matter.
Transparency International Communications and Brand Manager
We contacted Transparency International Sri Lanka’s Strategic Communications and Brand Manager, Kasun Sankalpa, regarding this matter. He stated that Transparency International’s CPI (Corruption Perception Indicator) report for the year 2025 has not yet been released.
He furthermore explained that the final stage of the report for the year 2025 is underway and that it will be released in the future.
Accordingly, he stated that the CPI index published by World Economics may have been prepared based on data from 2024, and Transparency International cannot take responsibility for this.
World Economics report
World Economics, a UK-based research organization, is releasing the Corruption Perception Index (CPI), primarily based on data from the Corruption Perception Index released annually by Transparency International.
Sri Lanka has been ranked “D” in the Global Corruption Perceptions Index, prepared using the latest 2024 CPI data released by Transparency International, by World Economics, with a score of 24.7. You can refer to the index here. This is a decline compared to 2024.
When examining these values in other countries in the region, India and Nepal rank slightly higher than Sri Lanka, while Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan rank lower than Sri Lanka.
What is being shared these days is a report published in early 2025!
However, since the circulated social media post indicated that the above report was recently published, we checked the archives of the link provided by World Economic. It was confirmed that the report had been available at the site since early 2025.
Accordingly, this is not a report recently published by World Economics, but a report released in February 2025, and updated at a later date, based on the report released by Transparency International for the year 2024.
The data is also consistent with previous World Economics publications, and our investigation revealed that their report was submitted a few days after the TI report was published.
Although the report is released by the World Economics based on 2024 Transparency International Data, they have published it as the Level of Corruption Perception (2025). We have inquired with the organization regarding this confusion, and we hope to update this report accordingly.
Data from Transparency International and World Economics
When examining the past statistics of World Economics regarding Sri Lanka, it can be seen that it has varied in proportion to the values of Transparency International. The position and value of Sri Lanka in each year are indicated below.
| Year | TI Official Score | WE Converted Score | Grade (WE System) | Global Rank | Gap from Global Avg |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 37 | 28.6 | C | 83rd | -6 points |
| 2016 | 36 | 27.8 | C | 95th | -7 points |
| 2017 | 38 | 29.3 | C | 91st | -5 points |
| 2018 | 38 | 29.3 | C | 89th | -5 points |
| 2019 | 38 | 29.3 | C | 93rd | -5 points |
| 2020 | 38 | 29.3 | C | 94th | -5 points |
| 2021 | 37 | 28.6 | C | 102nd | -6 points |
| 2022 | 36 | 27.8 | C | 115th | -7 points |
| 2023 | 34 | 26.2 | C | 115th | -9 points |
| 2024 | 32 | 24.7 | D | 121st | -11 points |
Accordingly, it is clear that these two indicators are changing proportionally, and the social media statement that the value has dropped to 24.7 from 32 is actually false; the previous value is 26.2. 32 is the value that Sri Lanka has obtained for 2024 by Transparency International. It has dropped to 32 in 2024 from 34 in 2023.
Below is how Sri Lanka’s scores have changed over the past few years in World Economics and Transparency International.
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Conclusion :
Our investigation shows that Sri Lanka’s corruption score of 24.7 is not taken from a recent report published by World Economics for the year 2025, but from an index created based on data from the CPI report published by Transparency International for the year 2024. That report has been published in the first half of 2025.
Also, according to the latest World Economics report, Sri Lanka has fallen to a value of 24.7, not from 32, but from the previous World Economics CPI value for Sri Lanka, which was 26.2.
Transparency International Sri Lanka’s Communications and Brand Management confirmed that the CPI report for 2025, published by Transparency International, has not yet been released and will be released in the future. Accordingly, the World Economic Indicators related to that data will be released only after that, and only then can the 2025 corruption perception values be checked.
Title:Has Sri Lanka fallen further in terms of corruption in 2025?
Fact Check By: Fact Crescendo TeamResult: Insight
