faq_gcb/2004/gcb/surveys_indices/policy

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the TI Global Corruption Barometer?
The TI Global Corruption Barometer (or the Barometer) is a public opinion survey, first carried out in 2003. In 2004, it was conducted in 64 countries. The TI Global Corruption Barometer assesses the general public’s perceptions and experience of corruption. It compares petty and grand corruption (and compares corruption with other problems in society), evaluates the extent to which public and private institutions are considered corrupt, determines where the public believes corruption’s impact is greatest, and asks about experience of paying bribes, and for the public’s expectations concerning future levels of corruption.

Is this another survey of perceptions of corruption?
In part, yes. The Barometer asks a number of questions about the public’s attitudes toward corruption and their opinions on corruption’s effects. However, the TI Global Corruption Barometer 2004 also asks about experiences, in so far as respondents are asked to indicate whether they or anyone in their household have paid a bribe in the past 12 months. This type of question makes the analysis more empirical, and means that this survey instrument combines perception and experiential data.

How is the TI Global Corruption Barometer unique?
The TI Global Corruption Barometer is the only worldwide public opinion survey on perceptions and experience of corruption. Because it is a poll of the general public, it provides an indicator of the relative success of efforts to curb corruption within institutions/sectors and across countries. The Barometer also reflects the extent to which the public believes there are prospects for reducing corruption in future, which is a measure of their belief in the will and capacity of their leaders and institutions to create a more transparent, better governed society.

Can the Barometer be compared year to year?
One of the features of the Barometer is that it will be able to measure trends over time. As the TI Global Corruption Barometer is a new tool, published for the first time in 2003, it is still rather early to identify trends in the data. However, the collection of data at two unique data points (in 2002 for the Global Corruption Barometer 2003 and in 2004 for the Global Corruption Barometer 2004) already allows for some interim assessments, such as whether the public think corruption is getting better or worse, which institutions they deem most corrupt, and what aspects of their lives are most affected by corruption.

Whose opinions are being surveyed in the TI Global Corruption Barometer?
The TI Global Corruption Barometer is a public opinion survey. That means it is a poll of the general public, not of experts. In each country, a representative sample of the general public has been polled. Some samples are national and others urban; all samples have been weighted to bring them in line with national and global populations.

Who conducts the survey?
The survey is carried out for Transparency International by Gallup International, as part of its Voice of the People Survey. Gallup draws on its affiliates in each country to translate and carry out the survey.

How many countries/territories are included in the TI Global Corruption Barometer 2004?
The survey includes 64 countries or territories in 2004. In 2003, the first year the survey ran, 45 countries or territories were included in all questions, with two more included on selected other questions.

In 2004, all five questions were carried out in 61 countries or territories. In Egypt, only question 5 was asked, and in Vietnam, only question 1. In Afghanistan, only questions 1, 2 and 4 were asked.

Which countries/territories are new to the TI Global Corruption Barometer 2004?
New countries or territories in the Global Corruption Barometer 2004 include: Afghanistan, Albania, Brazil, Czech Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, Estonia, France, Ghana, Greece, Iceland, Kenya, Kosovo, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Ukraine, Uruguay, Venezuela and Vietnam.

Countries and territories included in 2003 but that had to be dropped in 2004 due to lack of data include: Colombia, Dominican Republic, Palestinian Authority, Panama and Sweden.

Can my country be added to the TI Global Corruption Barometer?
In theory there are no restrictions on which countries can be included. Thus far, we have relied on Gallup International to provide country coverage through its network of affiliates around the globe. Funding permitting, we hope to be able to include more countries in the Barometer in years to come, particularly more developing countries.

How does the TI Global Corruption Barometer differ from the TI Corruption Perceptions Index?
Although these two measurement instruments differ markedly in their sampling, the correlation between them is high. The correlation between the CPI and the Barometer’s findings on grand corruption is 0.81 and on petty corruption is 0.88. This may indicate that the general public is better informed about petty corruption than about grand corruption (as information on the latter may be driven more by mediated information than by personal experience). In general, the correlation is high and suggests that the CPI and the Barometer arrive at similar results. It is important to remember that the Barometer is not an index, nor are there plans for it to become one.

How does the TI Global Corruption Barometer differ from the TI Bribe Payers Index?
Again, the Barometer is a public opinion survey, while the Bribe Payers Index is drawn from a survey of business experts in emerging market economies. The Bribe Payers Index rates the propensity of firms from leading exporting countries or territories to bribe in their transactions abroad. As such, the BPI is a measure of insider opinion on the supply side of corruption, while the TI Global Corruption Barometer offers the opinion of the public at large on the impact of corruption and the prospects for a change in corruption levels.