Denmark, New Zealand and Finland were joint first in a list of the least corrupt nations in the world, while South Sudan was at the bottom, an anti-graft watchdog found in its annual report.
The U.S. dropped out of the top 25 of the least corrupt nations for the first time as it ‘faces continuous attacks on free and fair elections’, the same study found.
Transparency International’s 2021 Corruption Perceptions Index, which measures the perception of public sector corruption according to experts and businesspeople, ranks 180 countries and territories on a scale of a ‘highly corrupt’ 0 to a ‘very clean’ 100
Denmark, New Zealand and Finland tied for first place with 88 points each; the first two were unchanged, while Finland gained three points.
Meanwhile, South Sudan was at the bottom of the list with 11 points, making it the worst country for corruption.
Norway, Singapore, Sweden, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Germany completed the top 10, while the U.K. was ranked 11th with 78 points.
The bottom tier of countries are those most affected by war, internal strife and revolution. The top tier is the opposite. America’s place may be explained by its greater participation in foreign wars and the influence of the military-industrial complex.
Note where all those “socialist-leaning” countries fit on this chart,