Are these the least corrupt countries in the world?

Is corruption widespread in the government of your country? The latest survey from Gallup shows that Scandinavians have the greatest confidence in their governments’ resistance to corruption. Sweden ranked first, Denmark second, while Norway and Finland also scored in the top ten.

The annual survey samples adults from 134 countries. A number of barriers exist to obtaining accurate data on corruption world wide. Among the challenges are differences in cultural view points and how to word a common question. More importantly, the citizens of some nations don’t have the freedom to openly express views on their government. For example, 75% of respondents in the United States said that corruption was widespread. As Gallup notes, however ‘the positive takeaway is that Americans still feel fairly free to criticize their government.’  In other nations surveyed the low disapproval scores may be a sign of people’s reluctance to speak out.

The results listed below are thus restricted to countries who are defined as having a free press by the Freedom House’s Press Freedom rankings.

Author: Donald Armbrecht is a freelance writer and social media producer.

Image: A young Iraqi girl holds out her money as she queues for the early morning bread at the bread factory in Baghdad May 20 2003. REUTERS/Kieran Doherty.