Transparency International published its 2007 Corruption Perception Index on Sept. 26. The methodology and history of this list can be found on its website. It ranks 180 countries on a scale of 0 (worst) to 10 (best). The 20 best go from 9.4 to 7.2 (I had to scroll down to #20 in order to include the USA Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!): Denmark Finland New Zealand Singapore Sweden Iceland Netherlands Switzerland Canada Norway Australia Luxembourg U.K. Hong Kong Austria Germany Ireland Japan France USA The bottom 19 go from 2.0 to 1.1 (Spot #20 is a twelve-way tie at 2.1, including such stars as Belarus, Sierra Leone, and the rest of the new -stan's): Bangladesh Cambodia C.A.R. Papua N.G. Turkmenistan Venezuela Congo D.R. Equatorial Guinea Guinea Laos Afghanistan Chad Sudan Tonga Uzbekistan Haiti Iraq Burma Somalia Other countries you may be looking for: Belgium 7.1 Israel 6.1 Hungary 5.3 Czech Republic, Italy 5.2 Costa Rica 5.0 Jordan 4.7 Greece 4.6 Cuba 4.2 Bulgaria, Croatia, Turkey 4.1 Brazil, China, India, Mexico 3.5 Saudi Arabia, Serbia 3.4 Bosnia, Macedonia, Montenegro 3.3 Armenia 3.0 Argentina, Egypt 2.9 Moldova 2.8 Ukraine 2.7 Vietnam 2.6 Iran 2.5 Pakistan, Syria 2.4 Indonesia, Russia 2.3 Nigeria 2.2
I had no idea Belgium was that bad... according to your list, Israel is #42. i read an article a few days ago, on the same report, that it is #30
belgium is a liberal paradise, actually. it would be hard to corrupt the system here, as everyone has a watchdog over them.
Hey, it was a little sarcasm and a little gentle jibe. I'm an American and the USA is #20 out of 180. We're way ahead of several other countries that are regarded as fine places to live like Costa Rica, Estonia, Italy, Spain and Portugal. Managing a huge country is tough, and no country of comparable size is higher on the list than the USA. Malaysia is only 5.1 and Brazil, China, India, Mexico, Russia and Indonesia have dismal ratings. Still, the populations of France, Germany, Japan and the U.K. are at least the same order of magnitude as ours, and France and the U.K. are even comparable in diversity, yet they managed to beat us.
Belgium is right behind the USA as #21. Guess I'd better post #21-42, ranging from 7.1 to 5.2: Belgium Chile Barbados Saint Lucia Spain Uruguay Slovenia Estonia Portugal Israel Saint Vincent Qatar Malta Macao Taiwan UAE Dominica Botswana Cyprus Hungary Czech Rep. Italy
Interesting - Northern countries doing better in this regard(possibly). Reaffirms my position -> Harsher environment = nicer people.
