Editor’s note: This article was first published in March 2018; although the original title says 2018, the data are from the Corruption Perceptions Index 2017, released by Transparency International in early 2018. All scores, rankings and regional averages refer to that edition.
If we compare the data in the Corruption Perceptions Index, which usually shows us the most corrupt countries out of a total of 180, we come to the conclusion that most countries are making little or no progress in ending corruption, while the number of journalists killed for reporting on corruption keeps rising in many of the countries that score below 50.
Let’s break down once again the corruption index data compiled by Transparency International.
To give you a preview: among Spanish-speaking countries, Venezuela (18 points) and Mexico (29 points) once again come off very badly in this ranking, with extremely low scores, although South American countries in general do not fare too well in the corruption ranking, with Chile and Uruguay as the exceptions.
Inexplicably, Spain surprises once again with an orange score (57 points). That is, it is not a clean country, but it does not show the level of corruption that Spaniards perceive, given all the corruption cases we have in the courts.
See also: What white-collar crimes are and which countries are the most lenient with them
How does this corruption index work?
This year a total of 180 countries were ranked, each given a score based on the perceived level of corruption in its public sector, according to experts and business people. The scale runs from 0 to 100, where 0 means highly corrupt and 100 means very clean.
This year it found that more than two thirds of countries scored below 50, with an average score of 43.
According to the report’s analysis, 9 out of 10 journalists killed for reporting on corruption are in countries that score 45 or lower. Every week, at least one journalist is killed in one of these corrupt countries.
Which are the most corrupt countries according to this index?
- Somalia
- South Sudan
- Syria
- Afghanistan
- Yemen
- Sudan
- Libya
- North Korea
- Guinea-Bissau
- Equatorial Guinea
- Venezuela
- Iraq
As we can see, Venezuela has even overtaken Iraq.
Which are the least corrupt countries?
- New Zealand
- Denmark
- Finland
- Norway
- Switzerland
- Singapore
- Sweden
- Canada
- Luxembourg
- Netherlands
- United Kingdom
- Germany
As it happens, the least corrupt countries are also, for the most part, the countries with the best quality of life.
Other findings from the Transparency International report
Europe as a whole scored very well, with the southern countries mostly getting the worst scores, among them Spain (57 points), Portugal (63), Italy (50) and Greece (48).
Across the Atlantic, Mexico has a score of 29, while Brazil has 37 points.
In short, the best-performing region was Western Europe, with an average score of 66 points, while the worst were Sub-Saharan Africa, with an average of 32, and Eastern Europe and Central Asia, with an average of 34.
Transparency International says that no journalist or media outlet should fear reporting on corruption, and sadly, in that respect, there is still a lot to be done.
Featured image: Goemon, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
