Law in Charts · Business, tax and the economy
Firms that were asked for a bribe
What share of firms say they were asked for a bribe in the last year?
% of firms experiencing at least one bribe payment request
- Iraq50.5% 2022
- Kiribati48.1% 2025
- Zimbabwe44.5% 2025
- Equatorial Guinea40.5% 2024
- Djibouti40.2% 2025
- Ukraine37.4% 2019
- Chad34.3% 2023
- Kenya33.2% 2025
- Kyrgyzstan31.4% 2023
- Viet Nam31.1% 2023
- Laos30.6% 2024
- Morocco29.6% 2023
- Mauritania29.4% 2025
- Myanmar29.3% 2016
- Democratic Republic of the Congo28.5% 2024
- Israel28.5% 2024
- Guinea-Bissau27.6% 2025
- South Sudan27.4% 2024
- Republic of the Congo27.3% 2024
- Cambodia27.1% 2023
- Russia26.8% 2019
- Sri Lanka26.2% 2025
- Malawi26.0% 2025
- Vanuatu23.5% 2023
- Bangladesh23.0% 2022
Source: Enterprise Surveys, World Bank (WB), uri: https://www.enterprisesurveys.org/en/data, Bribery incidence (% of firms experiencing at least one bribe payment request), via the World Bank. Data for 2016 to 2025. What it counts, how to cite it and the data
At a glance
- 170 countries or territories have a figure.
- The highest is Iraq at 50.5% (2022) and the lowest is Barbados at 0.0% (2023).
- The middle value (the median) is 7.4%.
What it counts
Firms that experienced at least one request for an informal payment or gift when dealing with the public sector (for example for a licence, a permit or a connection), as reported in the World Bank Enterprise Surveys.
What it leaves out, and how far to trust a comparison
The figure comes from surveys of firms in different years, with different samples, and relies on firms being willing to answer honestly. It measures firms' own experience of requests and is not a measure of how corrupt a country is or of the strength of its anti-corruption law.
Source
Enterprise Surveys, World Bank (WB), uri: https://www.enterprisesurveys.org/en/data: Bribery incidence (% of firms experiencing at least one bribe payment request), via the World Bank, compiled in World Bank, World Development Indicators. Source licence: CC BY 4.0. Data retrieved 2026-10-23 to 2026-10-25.
Cite this chart
Free to use in teaching, articles, reports and slides, with credit. Our compilation is licensed CC BY 4.0; the source publishes the underlying data under its own licence, shown below.
Reference (APA style)
TheLawToKnow. (2026). Firms that were asked for a bribe [Chart]. Law in Charts. https://tools.thelawtoknow.com/law-in-charts/firms-asked-for-bribes. Data: Enterprise Surveys, World Bank (WB), uri: https://www.enterprisesurveys.org/en/data, Bribery incidence (% of firms experiencing at least one bribe payment request), via the World Bank, https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/IC.FRM.BRIB.ZS (data retrieved 2026-10-23 to 2026-10-25).
Short credit for slides and websites
Chart: TheLawToKnow, Law in Charts (https://tools.thelawtoknow.com/law-in-charts/firms-asked-for-bribes). Data: Enterprise Surveys, World Bank (WB), uri: https://www.enterprisesurveys.org/en/data, via World Bank, World Development Indicators.
BibTeX
@misc{firmsaskedforbribes2026,
author = {{TheLawToKnow}},
title = {Firms that were asked for a bribe},
year = {2026},
howpublished = {Law in Charts},
url = {https://tools.thelawtoknow.com/law-in-charts/firms-asked-for-bribes},
note = {Data: Enterprise Surveys, World Bank (WB), uri: https://www.enterprisesurveys.org/en/data, Bribery incidence (% of firms experiencing at least one bribe payment request), via the World Bank, https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/IC.FRM.BRIB.ZS. Retrieved 2026-10-23 to 2026-10-25.}
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