Croatia made progress on the 2022 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), moving up six places to the 57th place on the Transparency International CPI ranking which covered 180 countries.

Croatia’s score improved by three points to 50 out of the total 100 points. This is its best achievement since 2015.

The CPI ranks 180 countries and territories around the world by their perceived levels of public sector corruption, scoring on a scale of 0 (highly corrupt) to 100 (very clean).

As for Croatia’s neighbours, Slovenia still fares better, although it lost one point in the CPI index to score 56 out of 100 points, the lowest so far, ranking 41st among 180 countries.

Italy also ranked 41st.

Among the EU member states, Croatia was ahead of Hungary (77th), Bulgaria (72nd), and Romania (63rd).

Considering Croatia’s eastern and southern neighbours, Serbia fell by five notches to rank 101st, Montenegro placed 65th scoring 45 points, while Bosnia and Herzegovina ranked 110th with 34 points.

The best transparency perception is in Denmark, Finland, and New Zealand.

Zorislav Antun Petrovic, Croatian activist specilaising in anti-corruption topics, said that since 1998, when the country joined this ranking, Croatia has for the second time received a passing grade (50 out of 100 score). On the other hand, it is discouraging that there has been no major headway in the last decade as Croatia’s score has varied between 46 and 50, he added.