Which country is the most corruption free according to Transparency International?
We have discussed about the twenty most corrupt countries in this article. Now, let’s bring up the good news with this list of most corruption free countries.
Living in a corruption free country leads into many great things for the people of the following countries. You will notice that most of them are also ranked high in terms of life expectancy.
Spoiler alert: seven out of these ten countries are in Europe. It is only logical to say that Europe is the most corruption free continent in the world.
What about the other three? Which continent do they represent? Let’s take a look at the full list of Alux’s top 10 corruption free countries. The CPI (corruption perception index) score ranges from 0 to 100, where 0 means very corrupt.
10. United Kingdom (tied with Germany and Luxembourg)
We start our list with the country of the hottest royal couple, United Kingdom. According to Transparency International, United Kingdom scored 81 in CPI (corruption perception index) in 2015. They are tie with Germany and Luxembourg with the same score.
Among the three tenth rankers, United Kingdom shows the best improvement in terms of CPI. In 2012, the score was 74. It kept rising on the following years with 76 and 78 score consecutively.
Being on the top 10 of the most corruption free countries doesn’t mean it is free of corruption. From time to time, there have been some political scandals found in the United Kingdom.
The local press calls it “sleaze”. These so-called sleazes were conducted by a few individuals, not the system. And the country managed to fight them relatively well.
9. Canada
The Canadians are commonly known for the popular sentence, “Sorry, I’m a Canadian.” This is from their habit in apologizing for simple things. For example, when a stranger bumps them on the street, they will immediately say sorry.
This kind of good habit reflects Canadians’ good behavior and nature. It has come to no surprise that this country is ranked 9th of the world’s most corruption free countries.
This year, Canada scored 83 in CPI. Actually, it was better in 2012: 85. In the last couple of years, Canada suffered from one of its most severe corruption issues.
The World Bank blacklisted SNC Lavalin due to bribery allegations in bidding global projects. Canada was considered with little or no enforcement of anti-bribery measures.
8. Singapore
Being the world’s 8th most corruption free country makes Singapore the “cleanest” country in whole Asia. The country has 85 CPI score this year. It has been going up and down from year to year due to its efforts in improving.
Singapore is not just the cleanest. It is among the leading countries in Asia. This happened for many obvious reasons. One of them is how foreign business executives and investors have no complaints in investing their capital in Singapore.
This is supported by the fact that for two consecutive years, World Economic Forum survey results show that those investors encounter no problems doing business in Singapore.
Of course, this doesn’t mean that Singapore is completely corruption free. There have been cases. But they were manageable by the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB).
7. Switzerland
Switzerland has a strong legal framework to fight corruption. But it is currently under the pressure of global corruption problem regarding the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA).
Similar scandal happened to the International Olympic Committee before. These are all the results of the country’s system which enables some types of organization to operate with little or no transparency or oversight. Including the international sporting organization such as FIFA.
Regardless, Switzerland is ranked the world’s 7th most corruption free country. In 2015, the country’s CPI score was 86. It is pretty steady for the last few years.
How come a country with such huge corruption scandals still ranked this high? Because regarding business, companies do not consider corruption a problem for doing business in Switzerland.
6. Norway
Next up is Norway. Even though Norway is 6th on our list, they are tie with the next country on the 5th rank. According to Transparency International organization, the country’s CPI score is 87. It is a slight improvement considering the score in 2012 was 85.
How “clean” is Norway? All businesses in Norway are conducted with a high level or transparency. Plus, the law is pretty restrictive in terms of corruption and bribery.
As long as you are registered in Norway, whether it is your name or your business, any act of bribery will be punished. Even though it is conducted outside of Norway.
There have been no reports of official impunity. Norway’s economic crime-fighting unit, Økokrim, has proven itself effective in investigating and prosecuting corruption in Norway (and also abroad).
5. Netherlands
The Netherlands fight corruption with its independent judiciary. It is one of the country’s strong pillars against corruption. The others are the effective mechanism, and above all: the culture of trust.
Both public and private sectors are almost corruption free. Transparency within the public sector is safeguarded by codes of conducts for civil servants.
In private sectors, most companies operating the Netherlands have established similar code of conduct. Plus, they have internal mechanisms to detect and prevent bribery.
According to Transparency International, Netherlands’ CPI score is 87 in 2015. They share the same 5th rank with Norway. However, Netherlands shows a more significant improvement.
4. New Zealand
New Zealand is empowered by two main investigative agencies in terms of fighting corruption and bribery. They are The Independent Police Conduct Authority and The Ombudsman.
The Independent Police Conduct Authority is an independent organization. It is there to follow up and investigate all complaints towards any member of New Zealand police regarding misconduct or neglect of duty.
The Ombudsman is there to make sure that the Kiwis receive what they deserve in terms of dealing with the government entities. This includes education and hospital boards.
New Zealand’s latest CPI score is 88. It is actually a downward considering the previous score was 91. Regardless, this country is still among the cleanest countries in the world.
3. Sweden
Let’s move on to the top 3 most corruption free countries in the world. The third place goes to Sweden. The country’s latest CPI score (2015) is 89.
Sweden has its own dictionary for corruption. It is not just about misusing money, but also misusing power. This means other crimes such as embezzlement, fraud, and breach of trust against a principal are also considered as corruption.
The Swedish government agencies are characterized by a high degree of transparency, integrity, and accountability. They are also supported by effective legal and institutional framework.
Besides being open and transparent in conducting both public and private sectors, the Swedish have a strong respect towards the law.
2. Finland
Finland’s latest CPI score is 90. This is really high considering that 100 score means the country is completely corruption free. What is the secret to this “cleanliness”?
Well, sorry to disappoint you, but Finland isn’t really corruption free. In fact, there have been many cases found throughout the country. Some of them are the Olkiluoto nuclear plant case and the Salora case.
So, the question remains: how does Finland stay clean with so many scandals? The answer is immense hard work in fighting corruption itself.
It is a relatively small country. With such hard work, fighting corruption has also been relatively effective. Being a small country gives Finland the flexibility in decision-making, easy access to politicians, and limited bureaucracy.
1. Denmark
Drum rolls, please. The world’s most corruption free country is… Denmark!
The latest CPI score for Denmark is 91. And it has been above 90 for the past four years. However, same thing with other Nordic countries, Denmark is also facing some corruption problems.
The key to keep the country clean is the hard work in fighting corruption itself. Denmark has a strong rule of law. It supports civil society and clears rules of governing in public positions.
This doesn’t mean that Denmark has no homework in keeping the country clean. There are still many works to do.
It just means that in terms of abuse of power, clandestine deals, and bribery in the public sector, Denmark is currently the cleanest.
