Editor’s note: This article was first published in December 2014; it summarises Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index 2014, covering 175 countries, and the political figures mentioned held office at that time. The rankings have changed in later editions.
The new corruption index report compiled by Transparency International holds no surprises for 2014.
Given the large amount of data it contains, we will try to break it down and summarise the report, or rather the perception of corruption.
To draw up this report and rank countries by corruption, the index looks at perceived corruption among politicians, in the justice system and in public services.
The most corrupt countries in the world are Somalia and North Korea. The latter is led by Kim Jong-un, who won 100% of the votes, with 0% abstentions. In fact, he was the only candidate from the only party standing in the last elections. North Korean voters don’t have many options.
Close behind are Sudan and Afghanistan.
If we apply a few filters, the most corrupt country in the Americas this year would be Venezuela, followed closely by Haiti, Nicaragua, Paraguay and Honduras.
The most corrupt country in the whole OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) would be Mexico, a country that is starting to shape its own “Arab Spring”. Remember that Mexico also appears in the ranking of the 5 most dangerous countries for women tourists.
Among the countries of the European Union and Western Europe, the most corrupt would be Romania, Italy and Greece.
Meanwhile, at the other end, as the most transparent countries, with practically no perceived corruption, we again find Denmark, New Zealand, Finland, Sweden and Norway, which are also among the 10 countries with the best quality of life.
Specifically, the least corrupt country in the world is led by Ms Helle Thorning-Schmidt.
Transparency International’s report includes an interactive map where you can look up the ranking of any country.
Inexplicably, Spain once again gets a not-too-bad ranking, placing 37th among the least corrupt out of a total of 175 countries.
Featured image: Ruben.2196, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
