Transparency International (TI) is an organization dedicated to monitoring and alleviating the menace of corruption in the world. As part of it’s job it releases rankings of different countries based on their levels of corruption.
The countries are ranked out of a 100, a 0 being the most corrupt and a 100 being squeaky clean. 175 nations that are evaluated and ranked in what TI calls the Corruption Perception Index (CPI). The ranking is based on studies done the year round on the workings of a nations public institutions (media, police, government etc). The 17 most corrupt countries are:
Now this doesn’t mean that the rest of the world is relatively clean because the world average is 43/100. More than two thirds of the nations ranked score below a 50 on the CPI. That means we, as a planet, are corrupt. This, I’m sure, is no news flash to people but the rankings do show us a positive side to the world as well. The least corrupt nations of the world, Denmark (92), New Zealand (91), Finland (89) and Sweden (87) can work as role models for the rest of the world. These nations are ranked so high due to systems that emphasise accountability and freedom of the press as well as information (such as open budget processes).
