Rule of law & corruption
No domain is harder to measure than this one. Actual corruption appears in no statistic; what can be measured are the perceptions of experts and the public, aggregated by independent institutions, each with limits stated openly here. That is precisely why several sources are used in parallel: when they all show the same thing, the picture becomes credible.
And the picture is consistent: after the gains of the 2000s, driven by EU accession and the wave of high-level corruption cases, every series flattens over the last decade. Romania is no longer sliding significantly, but it is not advancing either: corruption-perception scores mark time, rule-of-law indicators likewise, and the Eurobarometer series on judicial independence, charted below, shows the same lack of direction through the public's eyes. The rule of law has not collapsed; it has stalled.
Corruption Perceptions Index (Transparency International)
score 0–100 (100 = very clean)
- rank 24 of 27 in the EU (2024)
The world's most cited barometer of perceived public-sector corruption, aggregated from assessments by multiple independent institutions. Romania's score has barely moved since 2012: small oscillations with no direction, at one of the weakest levels in the EU.
Source: Transparency International
· Dataset: CPI 2024 Results and trends (xlsx)
· Open source
Control of corruption (World Bank)
score 0–100 (relative global standing)
- rank 26 of 27 in the EU (2024)
The World Bank's indicator aggregates dozens of sources on how well corruption is kept in check. Across three decades a slow improvement is visible, accelerating in the years around EU accession and peaking recently. Set against the rest of the Union, though, Romania stays near the bottom of the ranking.
Source: World Bank — Worldwide Governance Indicators
· Dataset: GOV_WGI_CC.SC
· Open source
Rule of law (World Bank)
score 0–100 (relative global standing)
- rank 24 of 27 in the EU (2024)
Measures confidence in rules: the quality of courts, police, contract enforcement and property rights. The trajectory mirrors control of corruption: a climb up to accession, then a long plateau. Below the EU average, but above a few member states.
Source: World Bank — Worldwide Governance Indicators
· Dataset: GOV_WGI_RL.SC
· Open source
Perceived judicial independence (Eurobarometer)
% of the public rating it good or very good
- rank 18 of 27 in the EU (2025)
The one series here that asks the general public rather than experts: how independent people judge their own country's courts to be. The answers swing from year to year without a clear direction, usually below the EU average.
Source: Eurostat
· Dataset: sdg_16_40
· Open source