Least Corrupt Country in the World Is … Not the United States

The Transparency International Secretariat in Berlin has released its annual Corruption Perceptions Index. The Index ranks the public sector of 177 countries across the world according to perception of corruption. This year, New Zealand ties with Denmark for first place.

The United States is on the list.  First, though, you have to go past New Zealand and Denmark.

And then skip over Finland, Sweden, and Norway. And Singapore.

Hold on, we’re getting there.

Then you go through Switzerland, the Netherlands, and you have to circle back to the southern hemisphere to Australia.

Good news: we’re now at Canada. Is the U.S. next?

Not quite.

There’s Luxembourg, Germany, Iceland, and the U.K.

And Barbados, Belgium, Hong Kong, and Japan.

Finally, in 19th position, is the United States.

(By the way, tied for last place: Afghanistan, North Korea, and Somalia.)

Well, at least we’re only talking about corruption and not high school students’ math scores. According to new results, American students ranked 36th in the world in that category.

Learn more: http://www.transparency.org/cpi2013/results#sthash.Pk4BTERV.dpuf;  http://sinosphere.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/12/04/shanghai-students-again-top-global-test/.

Contact the author at smeyerow@optonline.net. 

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