Corruption in Ukraine through the eyes of citizens and business: what a new NACP study revealed
For many years, corruption in Ukraine has remained one of the most pressing problems of public administration, affecting the work of institutions, access to services, doing business, and the everyday experience of citizens. Despite anti-corruption campaigns, high-profile revelations, personnel changes, and numerous reforms, the public sense of the scale of this problem has not disappeared, as corruption risks continue to be concentrated in those areas where people and entrepreneurs most often encounter government decisions, permits, inspections, and resource allocation.
Results of the NACP Annual Survey
NACP specialists published the results of the annual survey “Corruption in Ukraine 2025: Understanding, Perception, Prevalence.” The survey was conducted by the sociological company Info Sapiens at the request of the agency with the support of the EU Anti-Corruption Initiative.
According to the study, the level of perception of the prevalence of corruption, which increased during 2023 and 2024, decreased in 2025. At the same time, the assessment of how quickly corruption is growing also decreased. Despite this change, for most citizens this topic remains one of the most acute.
Among the population, corruption remained in second place among the main problems of the country after the armed aggression of Russia. 72.2% of the surveyed citizens called it a very serious problem.
In the business environment, the assessments also remain high. 65% of respondents consider corruption to be a very serious problem, and for entrepreneurs it causes almost the same level of concern as the migration of the population from Ukraine.
The real experience of encountering corruption turned out to be significantly lower than the general perception of the problem. 18.2% of citizens and 20.6% of business representatives reported having had such experience in practice.
In a longer time perspective, the reduction looks even more noticeable. If in 2007, 67% of surveyed citizens spoke about a personal encounter with corruption, then over the past 18 years this figure has decreased by 3.7 times.
The NACP associates such dynamics with systemic changes in certain industries, deregulation, development of public governance, digitalization of services and a decrease in the influence of the human factor during the interaction of citizens with state structures.
Where corruption risks are highest
The study named construction and land relations as the most problematic area for the population and business. Among those who had contact with this area, more than 30% reported corruption experience.
Among citizens, the second most prevalent area of corruption practices was the sphere of law enforcement and crime prevention, i.e. the activities of law enforcement agencies. In the business environment, the services of energy companies, in particular the connection and maintenance of electricity, gas, water supply and sewage systems, were in second place.
The lowest level of corruption experience among the population was recorded in the work of administrative service centers. In business, respondents noted the fewest such cases in the field of public procurement.
Why the perception of corruption is higher than personal experience
A separate block of the study showed a noticeable gap between how people assess the scale of corruption in the country and what they personally encounter. The NACP explains this difference by the influence of the broader social and informational context, in which perceptions are shaped by public discussions, high-profile revelations, and the general level of trust in the authorities.
In this logic, corruption for a significant part of society arises not only through personal experience of contact with bribery or abuse, but also through a general idea of how state institutions work. Because of this, high estimates of the prevalence of corruption can persist even when the number of personal encounters gradually decreases.
What is known about the willingness to report corruption
The study recorded another consistent trend: public support for whistleblowers does not translate into the same active willingness to contact the authorized bodies. 21.1% of entrepreneurs and 12.4% of citizens expressed the intention to file a complaint or contact the media.
The actual level of reporting turned out to be lower. Among business representatives, 9.5% reported corruption cases to the competent authorities over the past year, while 7.3% of the population.
Citizens and businesses most often place responsibility for combating corruption on the President of Ukraine and his office, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine, and the Verkhovna Rada.
This distribution of responses shows that respondents associate their main expectations with the central government and specialized anti-corruption institutions, from which society expects tangible results in the most problematic areas.
