ANNAPOLIS, Md., Nov. 14, 2023 -- TRACE, a non-profit international business association dedicated to anti-bribery, compliance, and good governance, has released the 2023 Bribery Risk Matrix, which measures business bribery risk in 194 jurisdictions.

Notable findings include:

  • According to this year's data, North Korea, Turkmenistan, Syria, Equatorial Guinea, and Yemen present the highest commercial bribery risk, while Norway, New Zealand, Switzerland, Sweden, and Denmark present the lowest.
  • Scores and rankings were relatively stable this year, with an average score change of 1.2 points and an average rank change of 3.9. This is partly due to the continued availability of data from the sources used to calculate last year's scores.
  • A few countries appeared as outliers compared to last year, with a score change of more than 4 points. The primary cause of these significant score changes was the arrival of new data for those countries from the World Bank Enterprise Survey, which had previously surveyed those countries more than eight years ago.
  • Among the non-outlier countries, the greatest improvement in rank was seen in Kuwait, Sierra Leone, Moldova, Seychelles, and Bulgaria, and the greatest drop in rank occurred in Azerbaijan, El Salvador, Kiribati, Eswatini, and Tunisia.

Originally published in 2014 to meet a need in the business community for more reliable information about bribery risk worldwide, the TRACE Matrix helps companies examine the conditions that underpin business bribery risk.

"The business community plays a central role in the effort to reduce corruption," TRACE President Alexandra Wrage said. "By maintaining high ethical standards in their direct engagement with civil servants and government leaders, multinational companies can help countries improve governance. Companies, however, need to understand the sources and multifaceted character of corruption to better target risk."

The TRACE Matrix is publicly available at TRACEinternational.org/trace-matrix. Access the Matrix Data Browser at matrixbrowser.TRACEinternational.org.

About TRACE

TRACE is a non-profit international business association dedicated to anti-bribery, compliance and good governance. Founded in 2001 to make it easier and less expensive for companies to navigate and mitigate business bribery risk, TRACE is credited with establishing anti-bribery standards that have been adopted by hundreds of companies worldwide. Driven by the needs of its members, TRACE is continuously developing tools and resources that power compliance programs. TRACE is headquartered in the United States and registered in Canada, with a presence on four continents. For more information, visit www.TRACEinternational.org.