Transparency International has released their yearly Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) 2024 report, and there’s good news: Australia is ranked as the tenth least corrupt country in the world. Ahead of it from the Asia-Pacific region are New Zealand at number 4, and Singapore in third place. Despite this encouraging news, Asia-Pacific as a whole dropped by one point, in relation to the year before.
The Report
The CPI ranked 180 countries based on their perceived levels of public sector corruption, according to several sources in each country. Up 4 places in the global ranking from last year, with a score of 77 out of 100, Australia achieved its highest position so far, tied with Iceland and Ireland. Zero represents high corruption and 100 indicates a very clean public sector according to the report.
As mentioned, Asia Pacific’s average dropped one point, and this is especially concerning, due to corruption’s detrimental impact on climate change, as it obstructs environmental policy, hijacks climate financing and hinders the enforcement of regulations. In addition, Asia Pacific is home to a third of the world’s population, has the second largest number of young people, and is the region most prone to natural disasters, so the negative effects of corruption could be felt here particularly strongly.
These are the Top 10 least corrupt countries worldwide:
- Denmark (score: 90/100)
- Finland (88/100)
- Singapore (84/100)
- New Zealand (83/100)
- Luxembourg (81/100)
- Norway (81/100)
- Switzerland (81/100)
- Sweden (80/100)
- Netherlands (78/100)
- Australia, Iceland, Ireland (77/100)
Denmark retained its position as the least corrupt country globally for the seventh year in a row. Meanwhile, Finland retains its position as the second least corrupt country worldwide, followed by Singapore in third place for the first time, knocking New Zealand to the fourth position. Additionally, the fifth spot is shared between Luxembourg, Norway, and Switzerland with a CPI score of 81 out of 100.
Interestingly, the report highlighted a worrying global trend because more than two-thirds of countries scored below 50 on the index and 47 of them declined from last year. This indicates widespread corruption issues are becoming a problem. According to the report, the most corrupt countries in the world are South Sudan, Somalia, Venezuela, Syria, and Yemen.
Editorial contribution by: Megan Zara Walsh.