Seoul Korea - Transparency International, a Berlin-based international non-governmental organization that monitors corporate and political corruption in international development, has published its 20th edition of the Corruption Perceptions Index on December 3. Of the 175 countries across the world, Denmark was ranked No. 1 with a score of 92 on a scale from 0 (perceived to be highly corrupt) to 100 (perceived to be very clean), followed by New Zealand (91), Finland (89), and Sweden (87).
Korea was ranked 43rd with a score of 55 in 2014. Its ranking has stagnated or fallen for six consecutive years. Out of the 34 member countries within the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, Korea was placed at 27th like last year's.
For ten years since its first edition of the Corruption Perceptions Index in 1995, Korea remained below the 5.0-point level in the one-to-ten scale. It received 5.0 points in 2005, followed by 5.6 points in 2008, 5.5 in 2009, 5.4 in 2010, and 5.4 in 2011. Since Transparency International's scoring system changed to a one-to-100 scale system in 2012, Korea got 56, followed by 55 in 2013 and 55 this year.
In Asia, Singapore won the highest score of 84 (7th in all countries), with Japan (76 points, 15th) and Hong Kong (74 points, 17th) ranked high. In contrast, North Korea and Somalia were ranked at the bottom with 8 points.
