The new Corruption Perceptions Index has been published by Transparency International today, 3 December 2013.  According to Transparency International, their index, which was first launched in 1995, some 18 years ago, has been

"widely credited with putting the issue of corruption on the international policy agenda...Behind these numbers is the daily reality for people living in these countries.  The index cannot capture the individual frustration of this reality, but it does capture the informed views of analysts, business people and experts in countries around the world..."

The 2013 Corruption Perceptions Index measures the perceived levels of public sector corruption in 177 countries and territories.  Here is a link to the results including a full table and rankings.

Denmark and New Zealand are in joint first position, with Finland and Sweden in joint third position.  The United Kingdom is in 14th position only slightly ahead of the United States in 19th position.

For anyone who perhaps naively might have thought that there may be uniformity across the single market in the European Union, they may be mistaken as Cyprus is in 31st position, Spain in 40th position, Czech Republic in 57th position (only slightly ahead of Ghana), Italy in 69th position only slightly ahead of Brazil at 72 and China at 80.

The newly released index has a game where you can test your knowledge online and you will be scored, together with some very snazzy "infographics" which groups the various countries within bands of how well they scored.  This is also coloured coded so yellow is very clean and as it becomes more orange the score means it is less clean all the way down to dark red which is "highly corrupt".

There are some interesting "featured blog posts" from various regions of the world which discuss also the effects of corruption on society including this one entitled "Drug Deal" which is a story about alleged corruption in Kosovo connected with the State's purchase of pharmaceuticals.

In Transparency International's press release today they said:

"The Corruption Perceptions Index 2013 demonstrates that all countries still face the threat of corruption at all levels of government, from the issuing of local permits to the enforcement of laws and regulations...corruption within the public sector remains one of the world's biggest challenges...particularly in areas such as political parties, police and justice systems..."

Finally, if you are interested in keeping up with daily global anti-corruption updates you can follow Transparency International on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/anticorruption or on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/transparencyinternational.

Congratulations should go to Transparency International for this informative and very useful index, and for indirectly keeping up the pressure on governments all around the world.

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