In 2025, judges remain the highest-ranked professional group perceived as corrupt, with 79% of citizens believing that almost all or most judges are involved in corruption. They are followed by public prosecutors (74.6%), police officers (69.8%), leaders of political parties and coalitions (66.3%), and Members of Parliament (64.9%). The lowest levels of perceived corruption are recorded among teachers (24.6%) and bankers (28.1%), as well as university professors and representatives of civil society organizations, who remain below the threshold of majority distrust.
At the institutional level, Courts also remain at the top in terms of perceived corruption proliferation, with 73.1% of respondents giving high scores (4 and 5). They are followed by the Public Prosecutor’s Office (64.1%), Customs (64.0%), and the Ministry of Health (63.3%).
The results indicate that citizens increasingly perceive corruption as a systemic problem shaped by the overall state of society, media coverage, and public debates, rather than solely by personal experience. Although trust in the Government and ministers has improved, public attention is increasingly focused on the judiciary, prosecution, police, and customs, while education, banking, and the civil society sector continue to be perceived as among the least corrupt areas.
The survey shows that the majority of citizens expect corruption pressure to continue in the future. In total, 78.9% believe there is a likelihood or high likelihood of corruption pressure, while only 21.1% believe that exposure to such pressure will be low or non-existent. This confirms the perception that corruption remains a serious systemic problem.
Regarding prospects for reducing corruption, citizens are notably pessimistic. As many as 66.6% believe that corruption cannot be significantly reduced, while 33.2% believe it can be significantly reduced or eradicated. Such pessimism may increase tolerance of corruption and the risk of involvement in corrupt practices.
Nevertheless, perceptions of trust in anti-corruption institutions show a positive trend. In 2025, 47.4% of citizens expressed full or partial trust in the Government, compared to 23.6% in 2023. The Ministry of Interior recorded the strongest increase in trust, reaching 50.3% in 2025. In contrast, the State Commission for the Prevention of Corruption (SCPC) saw a slight increase in distrust, while courts (86.3%) and the Public Prosecutor’s Office (77.3%) remain the institutions with the lowest levels of trust when it comes to addressing corruption.
The “Corruption Assessment Report on North Macedonia 2025” was prepared by the Macedonian Center for International Cooperation (MCIC) as part of the project “Civil Society for Good Governance and Anti-Corruption in Southeast Europe: Capacity Building for Evidence-Based Advocacy, Policy Impact and Citizen Engagement (SELDI.net)”, funded by the European Commission.
