Which region of Sri Lanka is the most corrupt?

According to the Subnational Corruption Database, the most corrupt region of Sri Lanka is Uva, with a Subnational Corruption Index of 33.2/100 (0 = most corrupt, 100 = least corrupt) in 2022.

Which region of Sri Lanka is the least corrupt?

The least corrupt region of Sri Lanka is Northern, with a Subnational Corruption Index of 49.6/100 in 2022.

How corrupt is Sri Lanka?

In 2022, Sri Lanka had a national Subnational Corruption Index of 40.6/100 (higher = cleaner), with grand corruption (SGCI) at 30/100 and petty corruption (SPCI) at 36/100 (last directly observed in 2011). The Subnational Corruption Database covers 9 regions of Sri Lanka from 1995 to 2022.

Country profile - LKA

Corruption in Sri Lanka

9 sub-national regions - 1995-2022. Latest country-level SCI: 40.6 (2022).

Grand: 30 Petty: 36 Latest observed: 2011

Sri Lanka: key corruption facts

The most corrupt region of Sri Lanka is Uva (33.2/100), and the least corrupt is Northern (49.6/100), on a 0-100 scale where 0 is most corrupt and 100 is least. All 9 regions are ranked below.

In 2022, Sri Lanka's national Subnational Corruption Index (SCI) was 40.6/100, on a scale where 0 is the most corrupt and 100 the least corrupt.
Most corrupt region: Uva (SCI 33.2/100, 2022).
Least corrupt region: Northern (SCI 49.6/100, 2022).
Grand corruption (SGCI): 30/100; petty corruption (SPCI): 36/100 (last directly observed in 2011).
Trend: Sri Lanka's SCI moved from 43.7/100 (1995) to 40.6/100 (2022).
Coverage: 9 regions, 1995–2022. Source: Subnational Corruption Database (Crombach & Smits, 2024, Nature Scientific Data), CC BY 4.0.

How Sri Lanka 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 Sri Lanka into 9 regions.

Index	Latest	Scale	Based on
Subnational Corruption Index (SCI)	40.6	0–100 (100 = cleanest)	Households — perception & experience
Transparency International CPI	36	0–100 (100 = cleanest)	Experts & business surveys
World Bank Control of Corruption	-0.4	≈ −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 9 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 (9)

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	Uva	LKAr208	1995-2022	33.2
2	Western	LKAr209	1995-2022	36.9
3	Central	LKAr201	1995-2022	39.4
4	Eastern	LKAr202	1995-2022	39.5
5	North-Central	LKAr203	1995-2022	39.8
6	Sabaragamuwa	LKAr206	1995-2022	41.6
7	North-Western	LKAr204	1995-2022	42.9
8	Southern	LKAr207	1995-2022	43.8
9	Northern	LKAr205	1995-2022	49.6

Download Sri Lanka

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 LKA.csv