Costa Rica: looks least corrupt

Costa Rica has the best perception of corruption in Central America, and is ranked 50th in the global list, in which the countries with the best image are New Zealand, Denmark and Finland, according to a the, published this month by Transparency International.

In Latin America, corruption is perceived to be lowest in Chile, followed by Uruguay. In Central America, El Salvador is the second, behind Costa Rica.

Among the worst performers are Venezuela, Haiti and Somalia.

The study measures the perceived level of corruption in the public sector, based on surveys among legal experts and business leaders.

Transparency International conducts the survey based on perceptions regarding the occurrence of bribery of public officials, embezzlement, integrity and anticorruption efforts.


The figures represent the level of perceived corruption among Central American countries on a scale of 0 to 10, with 0 representing the countries seen as highly corrupt, and 10 the least.

1. Costa Rica 4.8
2. El Salvador 3.4
3. Panama 3.3
4. Guatemala 2.7
5. Honduras 2.8
6. Nicaragua 2.5