Country profile - CHN

Corruption in China

31 sub-national regions - 1995-2022. Latest country-level SCI: 60 (2022).

Grand: 50.8 Petty: 51.5 Latest observed: 2018

China: key corruption facts

The most corrupt region of China is Gansu (52.8/100), and the least corrupt is Yunnan (67.3/100), on a 0-100 scale where 0 is most corrupt and 100 is least. All 31 regions are ranked below.

  • In 2022, China's national Subnational Corruption Index (SCI) was 60/100, on a scale where 0 is the most corrupt and 100 the least corrupt.
  • Most corrupt region: Gansu (SCI 52.8/100, 2022).
  • Least corrupt region: Yunnan (SCI 67.3/100, 2022).
  • Grand corruption (SGCI): 50.8/100; petty corruption (SPCI): 51.5/100 (last directly observed in 2018).
  • Trend: China's SCI moved from 58.1/100 (1995) to 60/100 (2022).
  • Coverage: 31 regions, 1995–2022. Source: Subnational Corruption Database (Crombach & Smits, 2024, Nature Scientific Data), CC BY 4.0.

How China compares: SCD vs. the CPI and World Bank

The Subnational Corruption Index is scored 0–100 on the same orientation as Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index (higher = cleaner). The difference: the CPI and the World Bank measure the perceptions of experts and business executives and report one national number, while the SCI is built from what ordinary households perceive and experience — and it breaks China into 31 regions.

Index Latest Scale Based on
Subnational Corruption Index (SCI) 60 0–100 (100 = cleanest) Households — perception & experience
Transparency International CPI 45 0–100 (100 = cleanest) Experts & business surveys
World Bank Control of Corruption 0 ≈ −2.5 to 2.5 Aggregated expert sources

Most recent year — SCI 2022, CPI 2022, CCI 2022. The SCD also publishes region-anchored SUB-CPI and SUB-CCI series so the CPI and World Bank measures can be read at the regional level.

SCI trajectory - 1995-2022

Country-level mean of the Subnational Corruption Index, averaged across all 31 regions. Higher values mean cleaner governance (0 = most corrupt, 100 = least corrupt).

61 54 1995 2022

Source: SCD v1.0 (Comprehensive Dataset). Years where the panel was filled by inter/extrapolation are included in the country mean.

Regions (31)

Each row is a sub-national region with its latest SCI score. Click into any row for the region's full time series.

# Region GDL code Years Latest SCI
1 Gansu CHNr128 1995-2022 52.8
2 Qinghai CHNr129 1995-2022 54
3 Jiangxi CHNr114 1995-2022 54.1
4 Liaoning CHNr106 1995-2022 54.2
5 Jilin CHNr107 1995-2022 55
6 Hunan CHNr118 1995-2022 55.3
7 Hainan CHNr121 1995-2022 56
8 Beijing CHNr101 1995-2022 56.4
9 Guangdong CHNr119 1995-2022 56.9
10 Guangxi Zhuang CHNr120 1995-2022 57
11 Hebei CHNr103 1995-2022 57.7
12 Henan CHNr116 1995-2022 58.9
13 Heilongjiang CHNr108 1995-2022 59.5
14 Hubei CHNr117 1995-2022 59.6
15 Shanxi CHNr104 1995-2022 59.6
16 Chongqing CHNr122 1995-2022 59.8
17 Anhui CHNr112 1995-2022 60
18 Jiangsu CHNr110 1995-2022 60.2
19 Sichuan CHNr123 1995-2022 61.6
20 Shaanxi CHNr127 1995-2022 61.8
21 Shanghai CHNr109 1995-2022 61.9
22 Guizhou CHNr124 1995-2022 62.5
23 Fujian CHNr113 1995-2022 62.7
24 Nei Mongol CHNr105 1995-2022 62.9
25 Shandong CHNr115 1995-2022 63.8
26 Ningxia Hui CHNr130 1995-2022 64.1
27 Tianjin CHNr102 1995-2022 64.2
28 Zhejiang CHNr111 1995-2022 64.6
29 Hong Kong CHNr132 1995-2022 65
30 Taiwan CHNr133 1995-2022 66.6
31 Yunnan CHNr125 1995-2022 67.3

Download China

Per-country panel slice in CSV format. Columns: iso, country, gdl, region, year, sci. Direct dataset citations should reference the Figshare deposit (see How to cite).

Download CHN.csv