Reviewed: 2016 Corruption Perceptions Index

Written by Holly Whitehead on Friday January 27, 2017

Following the release of Transparency International’s 2016 Corruption Perceptions Index yesterday, I delved into the results and some of them were quite surprising. 

Interestingly, a lot of countries seem to have fallen significantly in the rankings without losing too many points. This could be because an increased amount of countries are tied this year, but it could also be because 176 countries have been included in this year’s report compared to last year’s 167 so there may have been some new entries pushing those existing countries down. 

Notably, there were substantial drops for countries in troubled regions, especially in the Middle East where 90% of the countries scored below 50. Only the UAE, Israel, and Qatar have managed to remain above average in spite of UAE and Qatar’s scores declining. 

Here are a few of the more remarkable changes in scores and ranking that were among the results: 

•          The US lost 2 points (76 to 74) slipping down 2 places (16^th to 18^th)
•          Japan lost 3 points (75 to 72) & slipped down 2 places (18^th to 20^th)
•          Qatar has lost 10 points (71 to 61) (the lowest score it has had in at least 5 years) and slipped from 22^nd to 31^st place
•          Cyprus from 32^nd to 47^th and score down from 61 to 55
•          Botswana, the highest ranked Sub-Saharan African country, fell from 28^th to 35^th but only lost 3 points (63 to 60)
•          Israel up 3 points (61 to 64) and up 4 places (up to 28^th)
•          Lithuania down 3 points (61 to 59) but down 6 places (32^nd to 38^th)           
•          Spain hasn’t lost any points but is now down from 36^th to 41^st place
•          Same with Malta, it only lost one point (56 to 55) has slipped down 10 places to 47th
•          Costa Rica gained 3 points (55 to 58) but actually slipped down 1 place (40 to 41)
•          South Korea only lost 3 points (56 to 53) but have gone from 37^th to 52^nd
•          Saudi Arabia lost 6 points (52 to 46) and went from 48^th to 62^nd

A final mention for those countries right at the bottom (although the rankings haven’t changed much) where Somalia, bottom for the past two years, gained 2 points (8 to 10) and North Korea gained 4 (8 to 12)!

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