Which region of South Korea is the most corrupt?

According to the Subnational Corruption Database, the most corrupt region of South Korea is Gangwon Region, with a Subnational Corruption Index of 61.4/100 (0 = most corrupt, 100 = least corrupt) in 2022.

Which region of South Korea is the least corrupt?

The least corrupt region of South Korea is Chungcheong Region, with a Subnational Corruption Index of 67/100 in 2022.

How corrupt is South Korea?

In 2022, South Korea had a national Subnational Corruption Index of 64.6/100 (higher = cleaner), with grand corruption (SGCI) at 51/100 and petty corruption (SPCI) at null/100 (last directly observed in 2019). The Subnational Corruption Database covers 6 regions of South Korea from 1995 to 2022.

Country profile - KOR

Corruption in South Korea

6 sub-national regions - 1995-2022. Latest country-level SCI: 64.6 (2022).

Grand: 51 Petty: - Latest observed: 2019

South Korea: key corruption facts

The most corrupt region of South Korea is Gangwon Region (61.4/100), and the least corrupt is Chungcheong Region (67/100), on a 0-100 scale where 0 is most corrupt and 100 is least. All 6 regions are ranked below.

In 2022, South Korea's national Subnational Corruption Index (SCI) was 64.6/100, on a scale where 0 is the most corrupt and 100 the least corrupt.
Most corrupt region: Gangwon Region (SCI 61.4/100, 2022).
Least corrupt region: Chungcheong Region (SCI 67/100, 2022).
Grand corruption (SGCI): 51/100; petty corruption (SPCI): /100 (last directly observed in 2019).
Trend: South Korea's SCI moved from 64.4/100 (1995) to 64.6/100 (2022).
Coverage: 6 regions, 1995–2022. Source: Subnational Corruption Database (Crombach & Smits, 2024, Nature Scientific Data), CC BY 4.0.

How South Korea 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 South Korea into 6 regions.

Index	Latest	Scale	Based on
Subnational Corruption Index (SCI)	64.6	0–100 (100 = cleanest)	Households — perception & experience
Transparency International CPI	63	0–100 (100 = cleanest)	Experts & business surveys
World Bank Control of Corruption	0.7	≈ −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 6 regions. Higher values mean cleaner governance (0 = most corrupt, 100 = least corrupt).

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

Regions (6)

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	Gangwon Region	KORr106	1995-2022	61.4
2	Capital Region	KORr101	1995-2022	64.1
3	Gyeongbuk Region	KORr103	1995-2022	64.4
4	Jeolla Region	KORr104	1995-2022	64.6
5	Gyeongnam Region	KORr102	1995-2022	65.7
6	Chungcheong Region	KORr105	1995-2022	67

Download South Korea

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 KOR.csv