Iran is ranked 130 out of 180 world countries on the global Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) 2017, published by Transparency International on Wednesday, February 2017.
Transparency is a non-governmental anti-corruption organization. It rated a total of 180 countries on how corrupt their governments and public services appear to be. The ratings are based on findings by experts and public opinion studies.
Its CPI uses a scale of 0 to 100 to rank countries, where 0 is highly corrupt and 100 is very clean. More than two-thirds of the countries received less than 50 points, with an average rating of 43.
From 2012-2017, Iran has scored 28, 25, 27, 27, 29 and 30.
New Zealand and Denmark lead the 2017 index with 89 and 88 points, and Somalia, South Sudan, and Syria are at the bottom of the list with just 9, 12, and 14 points respectively.
The best performing region is Western Europe with an average score of 66. The worst performing regions are Sub-Saharan Africa (average score 32) and Eastern Europe and Central Asia (average score 34).
Transparency International says that corruption of governments is tied to freedom of press and civil society. It writes, “countries with the least protection for press and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) also tend to have the worst rates of corruption.”
Iran is considered one of the most dangerous countries for journalists and activists since they are systematically exposed to intimidation, arbitrary arrest, and long jail sentences. The country was ranked by Reporters without borders 165 among 180 nations in 2017.