Jamaica – Corruption Remains Significant Challenge, Global Index Shows

2026-02-11 - 14:37

Jamaica has recorded no improvement on Transparency International’s 2025 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), maintaining a score of 44 and reinforcing concerns that corruption remains a persistent and significant national challenge. The watchdog organization released the latest rankings on Tuesday, placing Jamaica 73rd out of 182 countries—unchanged from the previous year. While the country’s score sits two points above the newly recorded global average of 42, it remains below the threshold of 50, a benchmark widely viewed as indicative of serious public-sector corruption concerns. The CPI measures perceived levels of public-sector corruption on a scale from 0 to 100, where 0 represents a highly corrupt public sector and 100 signifies a very clean one. A score below 50 typically signals systemic governance weaknesses and accountability gaps. Jamaica’s Integrity Commission has previously noted that 44 represents the country’s highest CPI score, first achieved in 2017 after rising from 39. Since then, Jamaica has largely stagnated at that mark, dipping slightly to 43 in 2019 before returning to 44. In its 2025 report, Transparency International warned that corruption continues to pose a serious global threat, despite limited signs of progress in some jurisdictions. “Corruption remains a serious threat in every part of the world,” the organization stated, urging leaders to address abuses of power and confront broader structural issues such as the erosion of democratic checks and balances and attacks on independent civil society. The organization also pointed to mounting anti-government protests in various regions as evidence that citizens are increasingly frustrated with unaccountable leadership and are demanding reform. While 31 countries have significantly reduced corruption levels since 2012, Transparency International reported that most nations have either stagnated or regressed over the same period. The global average score has now fallen to a historic low of 42, with more than two-thirds of countries scoring below 50. The consequences, the organization said, are tangible. Corruption contributes to underfunded hospitals, inadequate infrastructure, delayed disaster defenses, and diminished economic opportunities—particularly for young people. Regionally, Jamaica continues to lag behind several Caribbean counterparts. Barbados leads the Caribbean with a score of 68, followed by The Bahamas (64), St Vincent and the Grenadines (63), Dominica (60), St Lucia (59), and Grenada (56). However, Jamaica performs better than Trinidad and Tobago (41), Guyana (40), and Haiti, which remains among the lowest-ranked globally with a score of 16. At the top of the 2025 global rankings, Denmark holds the number one position, followed closely by Finland. Transparency International noted that each country’s CPI score is derived from at least three data sources drawn from 13 separate corruption surveys and expert assessments. These sources are compiled by reputable international institutions, including the World Bank and the World Economic Forum, ensuring a broad and comparative measurement of perceived public-sector corruption worldwide. For Jamaica, the unchanged score underscores a decade of relative stagnation—highlighting the need for sustained institutional reform, stronger enforcement mechanisms, and renewed political will if the country is to break beyond the 44-point ceiling it has struggled to surpass.