Nigeria was ranked 142nd out of 182 countries in the 2025 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) released by Transparency International, contradicting claims circulating online that the country was the world’s 36th most corrupt nation.
The annual index, published by the Berlin-based anti-corruption watchdog, assesses perceived levels of public-sector corruption using a scale from 0 to 100, where lower scores indicate higher perceived corruption. Nigeria scored 26 points in the 2025 assessment.
Transparency International’s ranking places Nigeria among countries with significant governance and accountability challenges, though it does not classify nations as “most corrupt” or “least corrupt” in ordinal terms commonly used on social media.
Claims describing Nigeria as the 36th most corrupt country in 2025 stem from a misinterpretation of earlier data and do not reflect the official 2025 CPI results, according to a review of the index methodology and published rankings.
The CPI covers 182 countries and territories worldwide and is based on data drawn from multiple independent institutions, including development banks and risk-assessment bodies. Transparency International notes that the index measures perceptions of corruption rather than proven cases.
Nigerian authorities had not issued an official response to the 2025 ranking at the time of publication.
