Country profile - PNG

Corruption in PNG

22 sub-national regions - 1995-2022. Latest country-level SCI: 43.2 (2022).

Grand: 18.7 Petty: 45.5 Latest observed: 2017

PNG: key corruption facts

The most corrupt region of PNG is Gulf (34.3/100), and the least corrupt is East New Britain (52.4/100), on a 0-100 scale where 0 is most corrupt and 100 is least. All 22 regions are ranked below.

  • In 2022, PNG's national Subnational Corruption Index (SCI) was 43.2/100, on a scale where 0 is the most corrupt and 100 the least corrupt.
  • Most corrupt region: Gulf (SCI 34.3/100, 2022).
  • Least corrupt region: East New Britain (SCI 52.4/100, 2022).
  • Grand corruption (SGCI): 18.7/100; petty corruption (SPCI): 45.5/100 (last directly observed in 2017).
  • Trend: PNG's SCI moved from 45.8/100 (1995) to 43.2/100 (2022).
  • Coverage: 22 regions, 1995–2022. Source: Subnational Corruption Database (Crombach & Smits, 2024, Nature Scientific Data), CC BY 4.0.

How PNG 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 PNG into 22 regions.

Index Latest Scale Based on
Subnational Corruption Index (SCI) 43.2 0–100 (100 = cleanest) Households — perception & experience
Transparency International CPI 30 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 22 regions. Higher values mean cleaner governance (0 = most corrupt, 100 = least corrupt).

47 37 1995 2022

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

Regions (22)

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 Gulf PNGr102 1995-2022 34.3
2 Enga PNGr108 1995-2022 37.1
3 Western Highlands PNGr109 1995-2022 38.8
4 Eastern Highlands PNGr111 1995-2022 38.9
5 National Capital District PNGr104 1995-2022 39
6 Morobe PNGr112 1995-2022 39.1
7 West Sepik, Sandaun PNGr115 1995-2022 39.1
8 Central PNGr103 1995-2022 39.8
9 Jiwaka PNGr122 1995-2022 40.7
10 East Sepik PNGr114 1995-2022 40.8
11 Chimbu, Simbu PNGr110 1995-2022 43.1
12 Autonomous Region of Bougainville PNGr120 1995-2022 43.4
13 Northern, Oro PNGr106 1995-2022 43.9
14 Southern Highlands PNGr107 1995-2022 44.6
15 West New Britain PNGr119 1995-2022 46.1
16 Hela PNGr121 1995-2022 46.6
17 Madang PNGr113 1995-2022 46.9
18 New Ireland PNGr117 1995-2022 47.8
19 Milne Bay PNGr105 1995-2022 48.7
20 Western PNGr101 1995-2022 50
21 Manus PNGr116 1995-2022 50.4
22 East New Britain PNGr118 1995-2022 52.4

Download PNG

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 PNG.csv