At the beginning of the year, Transparency International published the annual report of the rate of perception of corruption according to the country based on the opinions of citizens and a number of specialists, collectives and international organisations. Each country is assessed on a scale of 0 to 100, where 0 is the maximum perception of corruption and 100 the minimum. The 2017 report was not really a source of surprises: levels of perception of corruption were similar to previous years, with few improvements. Two thirds of the 180 countries analysed were below 50 and the global average was lower, amounting to 43 points.
New Zealand, with a score of 89, topped the classification, after years in second position behind Denmark. On this occasion, however, the Pacific country has taken the lead. The ten top countries are still the usual ones, in this order: Finland, Norway, Switzerland, Singapore, Sweden, Canada, Luxemburg and the Netherlands.
On the other hand, if we start at the bottom, the country with the highest perception of corruption is Somalia, with a score below 10, followed by South Sudan, Syria, Afghanistan, Yemen, Sudan, Libya, Guinea-Bissau, Equatorial Guinea and North Korea.
Analysing the results on a regional scale, the difference between the regions with the highest scores (Western Europe) and the lowest (sub-Saharan Africa) is 35 points. The only region that exceeds 50 is Eastern Europe, with an average of 66 points. All the rest are below.
The regional average is 44 points, with big differences between countries. In the same region there are two countries that are in the top 10: New Zealand, first in the classification with a score of 89, and Singapore (84), along with Afghanistan, with only 15 points and is fourth from the bottom, and North Korea (17 points and twelfth).
This is the region with the lowest score (31), with only 5 countries with over 50 points and another five countries in the bottom 10 of the classification: Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Guinea-Bissau and Equatorial Guinea. Botswana tops the region’s classification with 61 punts, above Spain and Italy.
Middle East and North Africa
With an average score of 38, most of the region’s countries are below 50. A hallmark of the region is strong social control and numerous attacks on the freedom of speech. The country with the lowest perception of corruption was the United Arab Emirates (71), while Libya, Yemen and Syria are among the 10 countries in the world with the highest perception.
The region’s average is 44 points, although this is not a fair portrayal, as in the Asian Pacific there is a big difference between the country with the maximum and minimum perception. Canada, eighth country in the world with less perception of corruption, leads with 82 points, and Venezuela tails behind with a mere 18, making it the eleventh from the bottom of the classification.
Western Europe, with 7 countries in the top 10 with the least perception of corruption in the world, has the best average: 66. Denmark, with 88 points and behind only New Zealand, leads the region. Although all countries better the average and “pass”, Italy and Spain are noteworthy as the two countries with the highest perception in the region, with 50 and 57 points respectively.
Eastern Europe and Central Asia
This is the second lowest region (34) only ahead of sub-Saharan Africa and with only one country, Georgia, with 56 points to better the 50. The political structures of this region are still influenced by processes and wars linked to the disintegration of the Soviet Union and the old Yugoslavia. Turkmenistan is at the bottom of the classification with a score of 19.
Spain, with 57 points, is in 42nd position globally, equal to the Czech Republic, Cyprus and Dominica, and penultimate in the regional classification, ahead only of Italy. It is 14 points above the world average but 9 below the Western European average.