Transparency International: Hungary is the most corrupt country in the EU

In 2021, Hungary was only the second most corrupt country in the EU, but in 2022 it ranked last. Hungary is ranked 77th in the world, next to Burkina Faso and Kuwait, according to Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) report.

The international organization ranks 180 countries and territories on a corruption scale of 0 to 100, with 100 indicating the least corruption and 0 the most. The Corruption Perceptions Index, which has been measured since 1995, is calculated annually through 13 different surveys, involving experts and businessmen in order to get a more accurate picture of the extent of corruption in a country's institutional, public, economic and social systems.

Hungary broke its own negative record in 2021 as well, when it scored 43 points, and even less in 2022, when it scored 42 points.

This puts us 77th in the world ranking. Burkina Faso, Kuwait, the Solomon Islands, Timor-Leste, Trinidad and Tobago and Vietnam also have 42 out of 100 points.

In comparison with other EU countries, Hungary's ranking is even worse: while last year we were one of the worst performing EU countries with 42 points, alongside Bulgaria (42 points) and Romania (45 points),

this year we became the EU country with the worst corruption record.

Bulgaria and Romania have both improved their scores by 1 point in a year (Bulgaria has 43 and Romania now has 46).

The world's most corrupt country is Somalia (12 points), with Syria and South Sudan following with 13-13 while Venezuela follows close with 14 points. (In 2021, South Sudan was the most corrupt country in the world with 11 points).

The best-ranked countries in the world are Denmark (90 points), Finland (87 points), New Zealand (87 points) and Norway (84 points).

The full report is available in English here and you may further browse the world rankings here.

The Hungarian government's reaction

We contacted the Press Department of the Prime Minister's Office in connection with the report and wanted to know what the Prime Minister thinks about the world ranking produced by the organisation and Hungary's position. We received the following reply from the Government Information Centre:

"It is interesting that Transparency International did not investigate the Brussels bureaucracy or the European Parliament, they were somehow left off the list.
Transparency International is a member of the Soros network, which is deeply involved in the corruption scandal of the dollar left and the recent corruption scandal in Brussels. This same network funds the campaign of both the Hungarian and the international left and serves it with all its lying reports."

The Legal Director of TI Hungary is one of the members of the Anti-Corruption Task Force in Hungary's recently established Integrity Authority.